Environmental Disclosures : evaluating the ‘E’ in environmental social and governance (ESG) as a response to strengthening environmental accountability

Abstract

Considering the immense levels of environmental degradation induced by business and development activities, could the 'E' in environmental social and governance be a sufficient response to bolstering environmental accountability? The answer is not straightforward. One would need to explore what ESG is, its place in environmental governance (if any) and whether there are obligatory or voluntary measures to ensure that ESG is operationalised. Proceeding from the premise that corporations have an identifiable footprint on the environment, and that corporate citizenship would require corporations (especially those in the energy sector) to respond to and address such footprint, this discussion seeks to determine if environmental disclosures could be used to improve environmental accountability.