Earlier this month, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) provided filing guidance for California Senate Bill 253 (SB253) — or Climate Corporate Data Accountability Act — for its deadline of November 10, 2026.

What — and where — to file

To file for SB253, you can submit one of these through CARB's Voluntary Reporting Intake Form or climatedisclosure@arb.ca.gov.

• CARB's draft Scope 1 & 2 template
• Scope 1 & 2 emissions data already disclosed through an existing annual report or another program or voluntary initiative
• A statement of non-reporting, if your company wasn't collecting data as of December 5, 2024

What's required, what's not

Given the first-year filing for SB253, CARB has loosened their requirements for 2026.

• While CARB will make all uploaded reports public, they won't require public disclosure of your Scope 1 & 2 emissions. No need to post the data on your website or disclose in a report — just submit it to CARB!
• While limited assurance is required by statute, CARB is exercising first-year enforcement discretion and will accept submissions for 2026 with or without assurance.
• Your methodologies, data sources, emission factors, organizational boundaries, and disaggregated emissions by category and gas are optional — but encouraged — for 2026.

What's to come

To help ease Scope 1 & 2 disclosures for CARB, you'll soon be able to download a new SB253 template from Workiva Marketplace. (To learn when this template becomes available, follow this post for updates!) In the meantime, if your workspace has Workiva AI enabled, you can use it to help draft a SB253 submission based on Scope 1 & 2 emissions data, such as from Workiva Carbon.