Publication Type

Journal Article

Version

publishedVersion

Publication Date

1-2024

Abstract

BackgroundIn December 2015, 195 countries around the world signed the Paris Agreement and pledged to work towards limiting global greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit the average global temperature increase to 1.5 °C above preindustrial levels. From a scientific perspective, the stabilisation of global warming under any target requires the achievement of a net-zero emissions economy (Matthews & Caldeira, 2008). In support of global investors looking to provide capital towards green solutions andSustainability disclosures – a means to what end?A significant body of literature has suggested that many of the voluntary sustainability disclosures of companies come from the need to gain legitimacy from their stakeholders, whether they are investors, employees or regulators among others (Reber, Gold, & Gold, 2022). Liesen et al. (2015) confirm that much of stakeholder pressure on companies results in company sustainability disclosure, in particular as it pertains to climate and environmental data points, however, this is not matched byESG risk integrationESG risk integration is a form of investing that integrate environmental, social, and governance aspects into the investment process, has (i) social and environmental as well as (ii) financial aims. However, environmental and social aims are subordinated to achieving financial aims in the first place. Investors who signed the United Nations Supported Principles for Responsible Investing (PRI) committed to the PRI's principles on six ESG ambitions only were “consistent with their fiduciaryImpact investingUnlike ESG investing, impact investing aims for both environmental or social returns, in tandem with financial objectives. Despite receiving heightened scholarly attention, the difference between impact and ESG investing is largely unexamined, and it is not clear how they differ from conventional investment. Cojoianu et al. (2022) seek to explain the differences between ESG, impact, and conventional investing, by drawing on a dataset of over 8000 private market investment (PMI) firms. The study Agenda for future research: detecting and counteracting greenwashingWhile our special issue received sufficient submissions on disclosure, ESG integration and impact investing, we had hoped for more submissions on the potentially endemic issue of greenwashing, which skyrocketed in global regulatory attention during the last twelve months. In June 2022, Bloomberg reported that the US SEC began its “War against Greenwashing” (Quinson, 2022). In October 2022, the UK FCA proposes new rules against greenwashing (FCA, 2022), followed by the consultation of EBA, EIOPA

Discipline

Banking and Finance Law | Finance and Financial Management

Research Areas

Integrative Research Areas

Publication

International Review of Financial Analysis

Volume

91

First Page

1

Last Page

4

ISSN

1057-5219

Identifier

10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102818

Publisher

Elsevier

Additional URL

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.irfa.2023.102818

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