On May 29, 2025, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) held a virtual public workshop to review and discuss its rulemaking response to California Senate Bills (SBs) 253, 261, and 219, which require companies that “do business in California” and meet certain revenue thresholds to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and material climate-related financial risks. Although CARB staff presented some “initial staff concepts” concerning CARB’s approach to implementing SBs 253 and 261, CARB asked more questions than it provided answers. The clear takeaway from the workshop was that CARB has a long way to go before it is ready to issue a formal notice of proposed rulemaking on SBs 253 or 261, and there is still an open question of whether CARB will issue guidance or regulations for SB 261, which is self-implementing.

At the outset of the workshop, Senators Scott Weiner and Henry Stern, the legislative sponsors of the laws, assured the attendees that compliance deadlines in the laws will “stand firm.” This means that companies that qualify as “reporting entities” under SB 253 will be required to report Scope 1 and Scope 2 GHG emissions for 2025 beginning in 2026, and Scope 3 emissions beginning in 2027. Companies required to disclose material climate-related financial risks under SB 261 have a statutory deadline of January 1, 2026, to make their disclosures (see our prior alert detailing steps companies can take to prepare for climate disclosures).

CARB made clear it will not meet its SB 219 statutory deadline to have rules implementing GHG emissions reporting finalized by July 1, 2025. CARB noted that it is in the pre-rulemaking process and expressed a strong desire to propose a rule by the end of 2025, noting that, by law, it would then have a year to finalize the rule. CARB’s rulemaking timeline continues to create tremendous uncertainty for companies that may be subject to SB 253 and 261 and do not yet have sufficient information to know: 1) whether they will be covered by the rule and if so, 2) what will be required of them and when. The workshop did not answer these critical questions, and CARB staff were admittedly still unsure how the new regulations should ultimately address these issues.

CARB is continuing to actively solicit feedback to help guide its rulemaking, including on the “initial staff concepts” and other “discussion questions” advanced by the agency in its presentation. CARB indicated that it will continue to actively engage with stakeholders as it develops the rule, including hosting additional public workshops where it will review and seek input on key elements of its proposal.