Green Disclosure Regulations in Europe

Introduction

Given the ‘failure of [voluntary] transparency as self-regulation’ (Vigneau & Adams, 2023; see also Criado-Jimenez et al., 2007) it is important to shed light on the incoming mandatory reporting requirements. This call for papers is looking for research on the European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and the EU Taxonomy For Sustainable Activities (EU Green Taxonomy) in particularly. Inviting multi-disciplinary work, we are interested both in how the resulting policies were created and what the outcomes are.

Existing research shows mandating disclosure can have a positive effect on voluntary disclosure of other issues (Liu et al., 2017). Yet, first academic work points to usability challenges with the EU Taxonomy (Hoepner & Schneider, 2024) and anecdotal evidence from practice indicates confusion. Little ambition (Schütze & Stede, 2024) and the lack of Paris-alignment of the EU Green Taxonomy (Khan, 2020) have been noted. It is worthwhile studying uptake of innovative financial tools related to the regulations such as ‘Taxonomy Aligning Benchmarks’ (TABs) following work on Paris Aligned Benchmarks (PABs) or exploring ideas such as linking loan interest rates to the EU Taxonomy (Edenhofer et al., 2022). Early research highlights the importance to distinguish between asset classes (Sautner et al., 2024), use case, and data origin (Hoepner & Schneider, 2022). Context specific research is needed, with a granular approach for different stakeholders and institutional environments.

Outcomes need to be discussed under the double materiality perspective (Abhayawansa, 2022; Adams et al., 2021). Some argue the concept is ambiguous (Raith, 2023) or even an essentially contested concept (Oll et al., 2024). Likely companies will outsource the materiality testing under double materiality as part of ESRS reporting. Some have called this new line of business a gift to the accounting firms, who battled by scandals, have been struggling recently. Adams et al. (2021) remark that approaches to materiality testing vary considerably and that financial materiality gets prioritized. Moreover, the authors highlight that the lack of transparency around the materiality testing process undermines credibility of the resulting reporting. Relatedly, Larringa et al. (2020) highlight the big influence the so called “Big4” firms have in defining what assurance means in this new field. Adams et al. (2021) state that assurance generally focuses on checking sustainability data, omitting materiality testing from the assurance process. An analysis of restatements for the European context as a continuation of work by Michelon et al. (2019) on US firms would be highly relevant in the assurance context. As more and more data becomes available, it will be key to assess not only development over time but also comparing consistency and quality depending on the data source and process behind it. In lieu of widely available and comparable self-reported data, estimates play a vital role and are thus a meaningful research subject.

It is important to assess the process and drivers of the policy making process. There is opportunity in studying the governance process of the EU Green Taxonomy, for example surrounding the Complementary Delegate Act on nuclear energy and fossil gas which was followed by a call to reconsider by the advising technical expert group (the Platform on Sustainable Finance). Pressure on regulation is not only coming from individual member states but from global stakeholders. Cojoianu et al. (2020) show how anti-climate lobbying was rewarded by the European Central Bank during the Covid-19 related quantitative easing.

Submissions information

Open date for submissions: 6th January 2025

Author submissions deadline: 6th May 2025

Potential authors and contributors are invited to submit their manuscripts for the special issue. All submissions received will be processed by the Guest Editors on behalf of the journal and subject to the peer review process.

All submissions should be made through the journal's ScholarOne system: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/sampj. Submissions must adhere to the format and style guidelines of the Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal.

Submit your paper here

Author guidelines

*Guest Editors are listed alphabetically.