The three main data issues regard their availability, reliability and comparability.11 Some policy initiatives can be particularly effective to address the data issues, such as the convergence towards a common set of disclosure standards, an accepted minimal green taxonomy, and the development of well-defined metrics, certification labels and methodological standards.12 In the EU, the Commission’s proposal for a Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive would improve the quantity, quality and comparability of information on corporate sustainability and therefore make it easier to find data for environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments.13 The framework developed by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure, the TCFD, is probably the main example of a common standard in this area.
The recent episodes of proven transgressions by some of our banks also raise concerns and highlight the critical role of ethics in business. In all these cases, expert observers have concluded that the role of the finance professionals and, more importantly, their exploitation of conflicts of interests as being at or near the centre of such scandal-driven financial storms.