The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission faces constraints in reviewing climate-related and other disclosures because it primarily relies on information that companies provide, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

In 2010, the SEC released guidance to clarify climate-related disclosure requirements. While SEC staff assesses company filings for compliance with federal securities laws, which require companies to disclose material risks, it does not have the authority to subpoena additional information from companies, according to the report published on Thursday.

“Additionally, companies may report similar climate-related disclosures in different sections of the filings, and climate-related disclosures in some filings contain disclosures using generic language, not tailored to the company, and do not include quantitative metrics,” the report stated. “When companies report climate-related disclosures in varying formats and specificity, SEC reviewers and investors may find it difficult to compare and analyze related disclosures across companies’ filings.”

In addition, the filings may include only a few mentions of climate-related disclosures. For instance, the GAO reviewed annual filings for an insurance company, an oil company and a food company, respectively, that were 389 pages, 117 pages and 136 pages long. Within these filings, the corresponding number of mentions of climate-related disclosures was nine, 13 and six, respectively, based on the GAO’s analysis using the SEC Sustainability Disclosure Search Tool by Boston-based investor coalition and sustainability advocacy group Ceres.

“Given that SEC reviewers primarily rely on information companies disclose in filings, it may be difficult to determine whether a low level of disclosure indicates that the company does not face any climate-related risks or does not consider the risks to be material,” the report said.

Representatives of industry associations told GAO that they consider the current climate-related disclosure requirements adequate and that no additional climate-related disclosures are needed, but some investor groups and asset management firms have highlighted the need for companies to disclose more climate-related information, according to the report.