New Harvard Database Provides Policy Insights Into Climate Disclosures

HARVARD UNIVERSITY, 24 SEPTEMBER 2026 —

A new Harvard‑based Corporate Climate Targets Database launched on Friday, offering the most extensive tracking of climate‑related commitments and emissions trends for companies in the Russell 3000 index as the United States federal government rolls back climate regulations.

The timing of the launch coincides with a “systematic dismantling” of federal climate rules, according to the project’s description. The current administration has moved to rescind the Greenhouse Gas Reporting program that obliges high‑emitting firms to submit annual emissions data, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has begun to rescind Biden‑era climate‑related risk disclosure requirements that had not yet taken effect because of litigation.

Those federal roll‑backs are expected to create a fragmented data landscape, with companies reporting disparate information under varying state mandates and formats, leaving investors with “inconsistent and piecemeal data on corporate climate risks and impacts,” the project notes.

State‑level disclosure regimes are therefore becoming more critical. California, for example, has required companies to disclose climate‑related risks even after a court ruling paused enforcement of the new rule. The project reports that “hundreds of companies” across sectors—including technology, health care, real estate, consumer goods and hospitality—have reported under the California mandate, and that more than half of these firms are doing so for the first time.

Many of the first‑time reporters are private or smaller U.S.‑based firms that had previously disclosed voluntarily.

Similar mandatory reporting frameworks exist in the European Union, and other U.S. states are contemplating comparable requirements.

The shift from largely voluntary to legally required climate disclosures in these jurisdictions, the project says, provides a “shift from primarily voluntary disclosure to required public disclosure of company emissions and climate risks in some jurisdictions.” The database allows users to examine how such state‑level policies influence corporate climate ambition, linking state clean‑energy and climate measures to changes in net‑zero targets and emissions trajectories.

For Malaysian and regional investors, the database offers a new tool to assess the exposure of portfolio companies to climate‑related regulatory risk and to gauge the credibility of their emissions‑reduction pledges. By covering the full Russell 3000 universe, the dataset includes many multinational firms with operations in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, enabling analysts to compare how firms adjust targets in response to divergent U.S. state policies versus more stable European rules.

The ability to trace target setting and performance over a quarter‑century also helps identify whether companies are merely “walking away from their climate commitments, no longer publicising information about targets or progress toward them, or weakening their emissions‑reduction goals,” as the project’s overview observes.

The launch also aims to inform future federal policy design.

The project’s authors hope the database will “help researchers design meaningful disclosure policies that achieve emissions reductions while avoiding unintended consequences, like chilling compliance in the face of litigation risk.” By providing a comprehensive, longitudinal view of corporate climate commitments, the tool is positioned to support the development of federal disclosure requirements that can replace the data gap left by the termination of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting program and the SEC’s rescission efforts.

The initiative will continue to monitor the effectiveness of state‑level disclosure mandates, particularly in California and the EU, to determine whether public reporting “compels decarbonisation within companies that would not have happened otherwise.” Findings from that analysis are intended to guide both federal policymakers and corporations seeking to meet their climate objectives through “the highest‑impact reduction strategies,” according to the project’s statement.

The database and its accompanying online interface are now publicly accessible via the project website and launch announcement.

Related: Salata Institute at Harvard University’s Corporate Climate Targets Project · Harvard University