Standardisation is key challenge for ESG, MPs told

Standardised language and reporting 'would be a huge help'

Elliot Gulliver-Needham
clock • 2 min read

Standardising ESG disclosures is a key challenge for the industry to overcome, Hargreaves Lansdown head of investment analysis and research Emma Wall told the Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) committee today (11 October).

In the BEIS meeting held "to examine ESG and [the] rise of ethical investment banking", Wall stressed the importance of bringing "some terminology and some homogeny to this industry". Wall gave the example of Tesla, with some ESG ratings agencies ranking the firm as a poor performer on environmental issues due to its reliance on resources extraction in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while others rate it highly due to being at the "forefront of the electric vehicle revolution". Wall also emphasized that while standardisation was important, Hargreaves Lansdown did not have the sa...

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