Verification of the Effectiveness of Non-Financial Information: The Limits of Regulating Behavior Through Information

The European legislature has set up a coherent system for monitoring the effectiveness of sustainability information by relying on investors and public opinion. In this context, the considerable increase in information provided in the context of CSRD will certainly have an impact on companies, both because it is in their interest to conform their behavior to it and because ESG funds or stakeholders can point to that information suitable for changing the conduct of the companies themselves. Many institutional investors, even non-ESG ones, should support this approach. However, some obstacles to achieving these goals are apparent, in part due to the Commission’s decision to act very rapidly. Intervention aimed at imposing binding standards of behavior may be necessary, in case monitoring of information effectiveness, by both funding streams and public opinion, does not prove as effective as hoped. Such an obligation is unlikely to come from the European legislature, as member states are very divided.