Subodh Mishra is the Global Head of Communications at ISS STOXX. This is article is based on a ISS-Corporate report by Sara Derian, Associate Vice President; and Jessica Lobo, Senior Associate at ISS-Corporate.
Stakeholders generally supported CARB’s efforts to align with the GHG Protocol, provide flexible implementation pathways, and phase in Scope 3 requirements. At the same time, participants raised concerns about reporting burden, compliance complexity, and California-specific requirements.
Between August and September 2026, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) facilitated six industry-focused listening sessions to gather public feedback on the California Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act (SB 253). The sessions followed CARB’s earlier rulemaking workshops on SB 253 and SB 261 and included perspectives from reporting companies, trade associations, assurance providers, consultants, NGOs, investors, and other data users.
ISS-Corporate’s summaries of the prior workshops are available here: Workshop 1, Workshop 2, Workshop 3, Workshop 4, and Workshop 5.
Across the listening sessions, stakeholders generally supported CARB’s efforts to align with the Greenhouse Gas Protocol (GHG Protocol), provide flexible implementation pathways, and phase in Scope 3 requirements. Participants also raised concerns that certain elements of CARB’s proposal could increase reporting burden, create California-specific compliance challenges, or extend beyond existing GHG Protocol requirements.
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