NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / December 11, 2025 / As previously seen on the CSRHub blog.
By Bahar Gidwani
CSRHub has ingested a list produced by California's Air Resources Board (CARB). The 3,127 companies on this list are those that this US state agency feels may be affected by California's new climate disclosure laws.
These laws are generally referred to by their number: SB 253 and SB 261. (Their formal names are HSC 38532 and HSC 38533.) They require companies over $1 billion for SB 253 or $0.5 billion for SB 261 revenue to disclose certain carbon emission and climate-related financial risk information. The goals of the law are to provide California with more information about sources of carbon within the state. They are also expected to put pressure on companies with high emissions to reduce them. You can read more about these laws here.
CSRHub provides a consensus sustainability rating for any entity globally that has been rated by at least a few expert sources. We were able to find data in our system for 1,515 of the companies on the California list (click on the link to see them on our site). We believe that most of the remaining entities on the list are too small to be required to report under the regulation-at least initially. Therefore, our sample is probably a good representation of the types of companies that will be affected by this disclosure legislation.
While 83% of the affected companies are from North America, there are a large number of European (147) and Asian (74) companies that may need to report. Of the 1,230 US companies, only 313 are headquartered in California. Four other US states (Illinois, Massachusetts, New York, and Texas) have more than 50 affected companies. Almost ten percent of the affected companies are in Europe.
See Chart of Companies Affected.
Companies in a broad range of industries are affected. About 60% are from the consumer goods, durable goods, finance and real estate, and technology sectors.
See Industries Affected.
The average Overall rating of the companies on the list (55) is well above the average for all entities covered by CSRHub (50). It is also above the average for the 2,584 entities we cover from California (50). It seems that California may be taking regulatory action on larger companies that are already better than average. This can be seen also in the average score for the affected companies in our Energy & Climate Change rating area. Affected companies average a rating of 52, compared to California companies in general at 47.
See California Companies' Average Ratings.
California's new laws will produce a 2026 reporting requirement. The list we ingested isn't definitive. However, it does indicate that many non-California companies will be affected by the law. It also may be putting pressure on a group of entities that have already taken steps to improve their carbon profiles. It may be difficult for these entities to meaningfully reduce their emissions. Going forward, the thousands of California entities that aren't on the list may be a better target for regulatory pressure than those on the list.
Bahar Gidwani is CTO and Co-founder of CSRHub. He has built and run large technology-based businesses for many years. Bahar holds a CFA, worked on Wall Street with Kidder, Peabody, and with McKinsey & Co. Bahar has consulted to a number of major companies and currently serves on the board of several software and Web companies. He has an MBA from Harvard Business School and an undergraduate degree in physics and astronomy. He plays bridge, races sailboats, and is based in New York City.
About CSRHub
CSRHub offers the most comprehensive global set of expert consensus sustainability ratings, information, and tools. Clients use CSRHub's decisive data platform for global benchmarking, supply and value chain risk assessment and compliance readiness solutions. Founded in 2007, CSRHub covers over 60,000 public and private companies, and provides ESG performance scores on 42,000 companies from 134 industries in 158 countries. Our Big Data platform uses algorithms to aggregate, normalize and weight ESG metrics from 1,000 sources to produce a strong consensus signal on corporate sustainability performance.
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SOURCE: CSRHub
View the original press release on ACCESS Newswire:
https://www.accessnewswire.com/newsroom/en/telecommunications/the-new-california-climate-regulations-sb-253-and-sb-261-will-affect-many-well-k-1116729