Apple on Tuesday called for the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to require companies to disclose far-reading emissions information such as how customers use their products, according to a tweet from Apple vice president Lisa Jackson.
The comments by the iPhone maker mark the most specific prescription to date from a large public company about what disclosures are needed, said Veena Ramani, senior programme director for Ceres, a Boston-based climate advocacy group.
The SEC last month said it will seek input on how companies might report on their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate factors.
Investors have poured money into funds that use environmental, social and governance factors to pick stocks, but a lack of common standards has made it hard to compare issuers’ operations.
Jackson, a former US environmental regulator, in her tweet included a statement that Apple “believes that the SEC should issue rules to require that companies disclose third-party-audited emissions information to the public, covering all scopes of emissions, direct and indirect, and the value chain”.
An Apple spokeswoman confirmed the phrasing referred to so-called scope-3 emissions like those resulting from the use of a company’s products by other parties. While that can be simple for technology or finance companies to provide, calls to publish the data can be controversial for other industries.
Mandatory
In reporting its scope-3 emissions in January for the first time, oil major ExxonMobil wrote that the data “is less certain and less consistent because it includes the indirect emissions resulting from the consumption and use of a company’s products occurring outside of its control”.
Various other business leaders have previously called for mandatory climate disclosures including Larry Fink, CEO of top investor BlackRock. In February, BlackRock also urged heavy polluters to disclose their scope-3 emissions to investors, like the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures has also recommended.
In addition, Apple was among hundreds of companies that on Tuesday pressured the administration of US President Joe Biden to slash greenhouse gas emissions. — Reported by Ross Kerber, with additional reporting by Stephen Nellis, (c) 2021 Reuters