Last month, I wrote about the potential impact of the enactment of SB 260 (Wiener & Stern) on small businesses. See Will California's Proposed Corporate Climate Accountability Act Harrow Small Businesses? The Senate passed the bill on a 23 to 7 vote and it is now being considered by the Assembly. In a recent post, Professor Stephen Bainbridge raises three significant potential issues with respect to mandating scope 3 emissions - cost, accuracy and duplication.
SB 260 defines "scope 3 emissions" as indirect greenhouse emissions (other than electricity that is purchased and used) that arise from "activities of a reporting entity that stem from sources that the reporting entity does not own or directly control and may include, but are not limited to, emissions associated with the reporting entity’s supply chain, business travel, employee commutes, procurement, waste, and water usage, regardless of location". Large companies that would be subject to SB 260 are likely to have thousands of companies in their supply chains. Some of these may themselves be quite large while others may very small.
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