On October 12, 2026, California’s Office of Administrative Law approved the Air Resources Board’s initial regulation for SB 253, and it took effect the same day. The first Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions reports are due November 10, 2026.
The sentence most likely to get a board in trouble this month is “we don’t operate in California.” SB 253 coverage does not turn on where a company sits. It turns on global revenue and California sales — and a company with no California office, no California employees, and no California property can still owe CARB a report in 18 days.
This is the coverage test, the exemptions, and the part of the filing almost nobody plans for: whatever you submit becomes public.
The three-part coverage test
SB 253 — the Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act, Health and Safety Code section 38532 — applies to a “reporting entity” that meets all three tests:
- Formed under U.S. law. Organized in California, another state, D.C., or by an act of Congress. A U.S.-formed subsidiary of a foreign-headquartered group can be covered in its own right.
- More than $1 billion in total annual revenue. Revenue is measured globally, not by California sales, using the lesser of the entity’s two most recent fiscal years — one exceptional year does not pull you in, and one soft year does not let you out.
- Doing business in California. CARB borrows the tax code’s definition (Revenue and Taxation Code section 23101) but adopted the sales-based test: an entity organized or commercially domiciled in California, or with California sales above the threshold — $735,019 for 2024 and $757,070 for 2025, adjusted over time. CARB did not adopt the property and payroll thresholds that also appear in the tax statute.
Read that third test again. Roughly three-quarters of a million dollars of California sales — a rounding error for a billion-dollar company — is enough. Physical presence is not required, and CARB has been explicit that the applicability determination is the entity’s own job: you run the test, and you keep the records behind your answer.
Who is out
The regulation excludes several categories outright:
- Tax-exempt nonprofit organizations.
- Entities regulated by the California Department of Insurance, or engaged in the insurance business in another state.
- Government entities, and companies more than 50% government-owned.
- Entities whose only California activity is wholesale electricity transactions.
- Entities whose only California business is employee compensation or payroll — including paying people who telework from California.
If none of those describe you and the three tests are met, the question is no longer whether you file. It is what you file — and that is where the three doors into the first filing come in: report the data you had, or file the statement explaining why you are not reporting.
Whatever you file becomes public
Reports go to CARB through its Report Intake Platform (CARB’s preferred route) or by email to [email protected]. Companies that were not collecting emissions data as of CARB’s December 5, 2024 enforcement notice may instead submit a statement of non-reporting on company letterhead.
Both kinds of submission become public. That makes the November 10 filing a different exercise from most compliance paperwork: it is a document your competitors, your customers, ESG raters, and plaintiffs’ counsel will be able to read.
Two practical consequences follow. First, the non-reporting statement deserves the same care as the report itself — short, factual, and confined to the reason CARB’s rule allows: the data was not being collected as of December 5, 2024. It is not the place for commentary about the law. Second, the numbers in a full report should be numbers the company is prepared to defend in public, because public is where they will live.
CARB has said it will exercise enforcement discretion in the first year and expects entities to submit the information available to them. That posture is real, but it is not the law: the statute’s penalty ceiling — up to $500,000 per reporting year — stands behind the deadline either way.
The fee arrives either way
Covered entities owe CARB an annual program fee whether they submit emissions data or a non-reporting statement. CARB has not published a final per-entity figure; law-firm estimates put it in the $2,000 to $7,000 range per entity.
Fee notices are scheduled for December 10, 2026, with payment due within 60 days of the invoice. A parent company may consolidate fee payments for subsidiaries that report on a consolidated basis. Budget holders should treat the fee as a cost of the determination itself: deciding you are covered creates the obligation, filing or not.
If you are covered, the filing mechanics are already mapped
Scope 3 is not required in 2026. Assurance is not required this year — CARB accepts 2026 submissions with or without limited assurance. The report covers the prior fiscal year’s Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions, built from information the company possessed or was already collecting as of December 5, 2024.
For the working checklist — which fiscal year goes in the first report, the exact filing routes, and the preparation steps that still fit in the remaining time — see our companion piece: California’s First SB 253 Filing: The November 10 Compliance Checklist.
What comes next
This year’s filing is the narrow one. CARB expects Scope 3 reporting to begin in 2027, covering 2026 emissions — which means the supplier data requests start now, not next year. Limited assurance applies to Scope 1 and 2 first, transitioning to reasonable assurance by 2030.
And one litigation note, because boards ask: the Ninth Circuit has enjoined enforcement of SB 261, the companion climate-risk law. SB 253 has not been enjoined. The November 10 deadline is in force.
This article is general information about a public regulation, not legal advice. Applicability determinations under SB 253 are fact-specific; companies should confirm their position with counsel. Sources: Greenberg Traurig, “California SB 253: CARB Sets Nov. 10, 2026, Deadline for Scope 1 and Scope 2 Emissions Reports” (October 2026); CARB SB 253 Initial Regulation, 17 CCR sections 96070–96077 (effective October 12, 2026).