Misplaced expectations from climate disclosure initiatives

Mobilizing Private Climate Financing in Emerging Market and Developing Economies

“…However, better disclosures may not be sufficient to ensure that financial flows are consistent with climate goals. 62 Developing a robust greenhouse gas (GHG) accounting methodology based on gross emissions is critical to ensure the environmental integrity of impact reporting. Accounting methodology and standards can be developed by financial reporting standard setting bodies, such as for example International Accounting Standards Board or its equivalent, in collaboration with the IFIs.…”

Loose change is not enough

“…Major ESG scoring systems for instance have proprietary elements that have not undergone scientific peer review. The effectiveness of any of the ESG scoring systems and disclosure in reducing carbon emissions or mitigating exploitative labour conditions or in achieving any of their stated goals is yet to be established scientifically 2 . What's worse is that there continues to be disagreement about the impact of ESG scores on the financial performance of investments.…”

The advent of ‘radical’ transparency: Transforming multilateral climate politics?

“…The reason is straightforward and intuitive: transparency is assumed to be vital to enhancing accountability, informed participation, and ultimately better environmental outcomes. Closer scrutiny suggests that such transformative promises associated with transparency are often not fulfilled, whether for the state-based or private disclosure initiatives now proliferating in the climate realm [3,4].…”