Zeus: The Scope 3 train has left the station, Gary Gensler

As SEC ducks controversy with new disclosure rules, big companies are already reporting their supply chain emissions.

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Walmart’s reusable bag campaign is part of the reason the retailer hit its goal six years ahead of schedule to cut greenhouse gas emissions across its product supply chain by 1 billion metric tons. Photo: Walmart.

(David Callaway is founder and Editor-in-Chief of Callaway Climate Insights. He is the former president of the World Editors Forum, Editor-in-Chief of USA Today and MarketWatch, and CEO of TheStreet Inc. His climate columns have appeared in USA Today, The Independent, and New Thinking magazine).

SAN FRANCISCO (Callaway Climate Insights) — Two incompatible climate events occurred last week that demonstrate just how out of touch the political battle over ESG has distanced lawmakers from reality.

The first was that the Securities and Exchange Commission blinked in its two-year campaign to bring adequate climate disclosure laws to corporate America. Various media leaks said the SEC will soon release its long-awaited rules, but that it will leave out the most controversial one that requires large companies disclose the carbon emissions from their vast supply chains, called Scope 3.