Authors:

  • John C. Coates

Excerpt

April 2021, Opinion: "Not long ago, the title of this statement would have needed to unpack “ESG” into Environmental, Social and Governance. That ESG no longer needs to be explained illustrates how important these issues have become to today’s investors, public companies and capital markets. It also illustrates the pace of ESG developments. There remains substantial debate over the precise contents and details of what ESG disclosures might or should encompass. Part of the difficulty is in the fact that ESG is at the same time very broad, touching every company in some man- ner, but also quite specific in that the ESG issues companies face can vary significantly based on their industry, geographic location and other factors. As such, there is no one set of metrics that properly cov- ers all ESG issues for all companies. Moreover, the landscape is changing rapidly so issues that yester- day were only peripheral today are taking on greater importance. It is against this backdrop that I think about the regulation of ESG disclosures."