NEW YORK (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom mentioned Sunday that he plans to signal into legislation a pair of climate-focused payments supposed to power main firms to be extra clear about greenhouse gasoline emissions and the monetary dangers stemming from world warming.
Newsom’s announcement got here throughout an out-of-state journey to New York’s Local weather Week, the place world leaders in enterprise, politics and the humanities are gathered to hunt options for local weather change.
California lawmakers final week handed laws requiring massive companies from oil and gasoline firms to retail giants to reveal their direct greenhouse gasoline emissions in addition to those who come from actions like worker enterprise journey.
Such disclosures are a “easy however intensely highly effective driver of decarbonization,” mentioned the invoice’s writer, state Sen. Scott Wiener, a Democrat.
“This laws will help these firms doing their half to sort out the local weather disaster and create accountability for those who aren’t,” Wiener mentioned in a press release Sunday applauding Newsom’s resolution.
Underneath the legislation, hundreds of private and non-private companies that function in California and make greater than $1 billion yearly must make the emissions disclosures. The aim is to extend transparency and nudge firms to judge how they’ll lower their carbon emissions.
The second invoice permitted final week by the state Meeting requires firms making greater than $500 million yearly to reveal what monetary dangers local weather change poses to their companies and the way they plan to handle these dangers.
State Sen. Henry Stern, a Democrat from Los Angeles who launched the laws, mentioned the knowledge could be helpful for people and lawmakers when making private and non-private funding choices. The invoice was modified not too long ago to require firms to start reporting the knowledge in 2026, as an alternative of 2024, and mandate that they report each different 12 months, as an alternative of yearly.
Newsom, a Democrat, mentioned he desires California to steer the nation in addressing the local weather disaster. “We have to train not simply our formal authority, however we have to share our ethical authority extra abundantly,” he mentioned.
Newsom’s workplace introduced Saturday that California has filed a lawsuit in opposition to a few of the world’s largest oil and gasoline firms, claiming they deceived the general public in regards to the dangers of fossil fuels now faulted for local weather change-related storms and wildfires that brought about billions of {dollars} in harm.
The civil lawsuit filed in state Superior Court docket in San Francisco additionally seeks the creation of a fund — financed by the businesses — to pay for restoration efforts following devastating storms and fires.
