The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s  proposed rule requiring publicly traded companies to disclose indirect and direct greenhouse gas emissions would bring a needed national standard as states seek to enact their own environmental regulations, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said Thursday.

Without a federal climate disclosure rule, many U.S. companies “would be looking to other jurisdictions and need to comply with those other jurisdictions,” Gensler said at a U.S. Chamber of Commerce event in Washington.