Tag: California

Updated October 26, 2026. By Will Tygart.

Updated Nov 2, 2026 — added the free California climate quick card, Nov 10 SB 253 filing pack, and California climate accountability bot book downloads to this guide.

The November 10, 2026 filing is SB 253 only. Covered companies report Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions to the California Air Resources Board. Scope 3 starts in 2027. SB 261, the climate-related financial risk report, is a different statute, and a Ninth Circuit injunction is blocking its enforcement. AB 1305 is a website-disclosure rule for voluntary carbon offsets and for carbon-neutral or net-zero claims. It is not a climate-damages statute.

Who SB 253 actually covers

A reporting entity under section 38532 is a partnership, corporation, limited liability company, or other business entity formed in the United States, with total annual revenues above $1 billion, that does business in California. Applicability uses the prior fiscal year. CARB’s October 12, 2026 bulletin describes the same threshold as U.S.-based companies with total annual revenues in excess of $1 billion that do business in California.

Square footage does not trigger SB 253. A building owner, a REIT, or a tenant is covered only if an entity in that structure meets the revenue and “doing business” tests. This guide does not decide “doing business” for a particular company. That is a facts question for counsel against CARB’s regulation.

Scope 1 is direct emissions from sources the entity owns or controls, including fuel combustion. Scope 2 is indirect emissions from purchased or acquired electricity, steam, heating, or cooling. Scope 3 is other indirect upstream and downstream emissions. There is no 40 percent materiality test in section 38532. Scope 3 disclosure starts in 2027, on a schedule CARB sets. Measurement and reporting follow the Greenhouse Gas Protocol standards named in the statute.

For how boundaries, utility data, and the three scopes are actually calculated, use the Carbon Accounting Scope 1, 2, and 3 Guide.

SB 253, SB 261, SB 219, and AB 1305: status on October 26, 2026

SB 261 is not a greenwashing statute

Section 38533 requires a climate-related financial risk report: the material financial risk from physical and transition impacts, and the measures the company has adopted to reduce and adapt to that risk. It is aimed at covered entities over $500 million in revenue. It is not a strict-liability advertising law, and it is not enforced by treating every climate sentence as a separate Attorney General case under this section.

On November 18, 2025, the Ninth Circuit granted an injunction pending appeal against enforcement of SB 261 and denied that request as to SB 253. The order is case No. 25-5327; the caption on the order is Chamber of Commerce v. Randolph. CARB’s docket refers to the same appeal as Chamber of Commerce v. Sanchez. That docket, read on October 26, 2026, says CARB will not enforce section 38533 against covered entities for failing to post and submit reports by the January 1, 2026 statutory deadline. The docket remains open for entities that choose to submit a report voluntarily. Do not budget the next two weeks as if an SB 261 filing were compulsory, and do not invent a substitute deadline CARB has not published.

Sources: Ninth Circuit order, November 18, 2025; CARB SB 261 docket; Health and Safety Code section 38533.

Penalties, and what they are not

For SB 253, section 38532(f) says section 38580 does not apply. CARB’s administrative penalty for nonfiling, late filing, or another failure to meet the section shall not exceed $500,000 in a reporting year. CARB must consider the violator’s compliance history and good-faith measures. A good-faith Scope 3 misstatement made with a reasonable basis is not subject to an administrative penalty under this section. From 2027 through 2030, Scope 3 penalties are limited to nonfiling.

That is not a $5,000-per-day penalty. The $2,500-per-day figure lives in AB 1305, and it is capped at $500,000. SB 261’s own cap is $50,000 in a reporting year, and CARB has said it will not enforce the missed January 1, 2026 SB 261 deadline while the injunction stands.

AB 1305: website claims, including a carbon-neutral lease

AB 1305 is the Voluntary Carbon Market Disclosures law, Health and Safety Code sections 44475 through 44475.3. It took effect January 1, 2024. This refresh did not find a 2026 amendment that creates a new landlord-only rule. The statute already covers commercial marketing when the words of the statute are met.

• Section 44475. A business that markets or sells voluntary carbon offsets in California discloses, on its website, the project protocol, location, timeline, type (removal, avoided emission, or both), durability where the seller knows the commitment is shorter than the atmospheric lifetime of carbon dioxide, third-party validation, annual quantities, and what happens if the reductions do not materialize.
• Section 44475.1. An entity that purchases or uses voluntary carbon offsets and claims net zero, carbon neutral, or another claim that it, a related entity, or a product adds no net greenhouse gases, or has made significant reductions, discloses the seller, registry, project, protocol, and whether the data and claims were independently verified. The section does not apply to an entity that does not operate in California or does not purchase or use offsets sold in the state.
• Section 44475.2. An entity that makes those same claims in California discloses how the claim was determined to be accurate or accomplished, how interim progress is measured, and whether the data and claims were independently verified. This section does not require that the claim be based on an offset. It does not apply to an entity that does not operate in the state or does not make the claims in the state.
• Section 44475.3. Disclosures are updated at least annually. A violation is subject to a civil penalty of not more than $2,500 per day for each day the information is missing or inaccurate, for each violation, not to exceed $500,000, in an action by the Attorney General or a district attorney, county counsel, or city attorney.

A commercial landlord that markets a building or a lease in California as carbon-neutral or net-zero is making a claim in the language of sections 44475.1 and 44475.2. The practical step is a page on the landlord’s own website that shows how the claim was measured and whether anyone verified it, updated at least once a year. It is not an SB 253 emissions report, and it is not filed with CARB on November 10.

What to do before November 10

1. Identify any owner, tenant, or parent with revenue above $1 billion that does business in California. If a parent will file one consolidated Scope 1 and Scope 2 report, list the subsidiaries that report is meant to cover. Section 38532 says a covered subsidiary included in that parent report does not prepare its own.
2. Pull Scope 1 and Scope 2 for the prior fiscal year from data the company already has: fuel, refrigerants, purchased electricity, steam, heat, and cooling. Read CARB’s 2026 guidance, including the December 2024 enforcement-discretion discussion, before treating a gap as a completed inventory.
3. Submit by November 10, 2026, either through CARB’s voluntary intake platform or by email to [email protected], and include the contact CARB asked for so it can implement the fee. The statute requires an annual fee set to CARB’s cost of administration. This guide does not state a fee amount.
4. Do not treat an SB 261 report as due on November 10. Track the appeal. Voluntary docket submissions are optional.
5. If the property’s public marketing says carbon-neutral or net-zero, update the AB 1305 website disclosure on its own track.

Companies that also report under other regimes should coordinate the California filing with those reports, not copy a federal or European template and assume it satisfies section 38532. The comparison lives in Post-SEC Disclosure Patchwork Compliance 2026. Lenders asking what a building can show during a climate disruption are a separate workstream: the Lender Climate Continuity Evidence Pack.

Questions the old version of this page answered wrong

Are SB 253 and SB 261 both due November 10, 2026?

No. November 10, 2026 is the SB 253 Scope 1 and Scope 2 deadline in CARB’s initial regulation. SB 261’s statutory date was January 1, 2026, and enforcement of that statute is enjoined.

Does a small share of California revenue still force a full company inventory?

Section 38532 covers a U.S. entity with revenue above $1 billion that does business in California. It does not contain a percentage-of-revenue test, and it does not say that five percent of revenue is the line. Whether a given company “does business in California” has to be answered against CARB’s regulation, not against a rule of thumb.

Is third-party assurance required for the November 10 report?

The statute schedules limited assurance for Scope 1 and Scope 2 beginning in 2026. CARB has said it will accept the first report whether or not that data received limited assurance, and that entities who were not collecting data when the December 2024 notice was issued are not expected to submit Scope 1 and Scope 2 data for 2026 only. Assurance is not a condition of the 2026 filing under that guidance. The statutory schedule for later years is still on the books, including reasonable assurance for Scope 1 and Scope 2 beginning in 2030.

What happens if the November 10 report is late?

Section 38532 authorizes an administrative penalty up to $500,000 in a reporting year for nonfiling, late filing, or another failure, after CARB considers compliance history and good faith. It does not set a $5,000 daily penalty.