European Approaches to the Development of Conceptual Frameworks for ESG Policy

Currently, sustainable development has become a key topic for the global community, reflecting the awareness of the urgency of environmental issues, social justice, and the challenges of ensuring stable economic growth. The ESG concept (environmental, social, governance) began to be developed to eliminate at the corporate level the challenges provoked by “unregulated” economic globalization, the main actors of which were transnational (multinational) companies, intensively conquering new markets, lobbying their activities in conditions of weak national government regulation in the countries where branches of these companies operate. Currently, the European Union is ahead of other jurisdictions in regulating the fundamentals of a policy of environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality corporate governance. Ongoing efforts to standardize and make regulatory measures transparent highlight the importance of ESG in modern Europe. The purpose of the article is to systematize the key approaches to the development of conceptual frameworks for policies to support environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality corporate governance (ESG) at the level of the European Union. The features of the implementation of ESG policy in modern realities in the context of global challenges are considered, as well as an analysis of existing European regulatory documents regulating the development of conceptual foundations for a policy of environmentally friendly, socially responsible, and high-quality corporate governance. As a result, the key regulatory drivers in the field of ESG in the European Union are systematized, and the features of the modern taxonomy of green (sustainable) activities of the EU companies are revealed. It is concluded that the legislation in the field of ESG in the countries of the Asia-Pacific region is rather fragmented and the degree of uniformity of legislation in the field of ESG in European countries is higher than in Asian countries. The key aspects of disclosure of non-financial information on accounting for ESG factors and sustainable development goals by the EU companies and the main regulatory changes that occurred in 2023 within the framework of climate regulation at the EU level are identified.