The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has come up with a regulatory agenda to bring in more regulation as far as environmental, social, and governance (ESG) disclosures are concerned.

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They have set up an enforcement task force to crack down on greenwashing and misleading claims.

Greenwashing means a communication and marketing strategy adopted by companies or other organizations which consists in putting forward ecological arguments in order to forge an ecologically responsible image among the public.

They also are looking at crafting new rules that would require SEC registrants to disclose information on climate-related risk.

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SECs Chair Gensler believes investors should be able to assess the data and criteria that asset managers are using to label funds as "green" or "sustainable".

Chair also expects SEC to propose climate disclosures by year-end. This will aim to meet what he described as investors' request for "consistent, comparable and decision-useful disclosures."

He said the SEC staff should consider both qualitative and quantitative disclosures. Quantitative disclosures could include metrics relating to greenhouse gases, the financial impact of climate change and progress towards achieving climate-related goals.

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SEC might also consider reporting of greenhouse emissions by the companies through their supply chains and whether climate disclosures should be filed in a registrant's annual report on Form 10-K alongside other information that investors use to make their investment decisions. They also talk about whether to include certain metrics for specific industries, such as banking, insurance, or transportation.

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Lastly, a lot of companies have made promises of achieving certain emission norms, SEC might consider which data or metrics those companies might use to inform investors about how they are meeting those requirements.