This consultation was conducted with the intention of diving deeper into the most relevant findings from the 2023 Leaders Survey, providing a more focused and detailed look at what is most important to sustainability experts across the globe.
Respondents to the 2023 Leaders Survey indicated that government legislation and disclosure requirements are currently seen as the most important drivers in progressing the sustainability agenda. This is reflected by the flurry of activity in the disclosure landscape as companies react to several pending or established regulatory requirements across geographies. ESG-related disclosure has especially been in the spotlight, with companies operating in Europe preparing for alignment with CSRD, and those with listed securities in the United States anxiously awaiting the finalization of the SEC’s Climate-related Disclosure Rule. And as the ISSB’s IFRS S1 and S2 become integrated into the disclosure landscape, government legislation and disclosure requirements are likely to remain a high priority for entities across sectors and geographies.
We wanted to find out more from our network of sustainability experts about how government legislation and disclosure requirements will play out in the future – do they expect more, less, or the same amount of government legislation on sustainability in their country over the next 12 months?
What is the most important action that governments could take now to advance the sustainability agenda? And how do experts see different organizations performing over time on contributing to the sustainability agenda?
Our survey shows that an overwhelming majority of respondents expect at least the same if not more government legislation in the next 12 months, with corporate respondents being the most bullish on legislation. Further, respondents not only expect more legislation, but they also believe passing more or improving existing legislation to be the most important action governments could take to advance the sustainability agenda. Though NGOs are seen to be the strongest performers in contributing toward progress on sustainable development, governments are expected to play a major role in the future of the sustainability landscape.
