ESG Integration and SRI Strategies in the EU Challenges and Opportunities for Sustainable Development

This book analyses sustainable finance policies implemented by the European Commission since January 2020. Gathering contributors from a range of European and international universities, it particularly aims to explore how EU strategy on green finance encourages and stimulates socially responsible investments that provide solutions to the challenges of the energy transition.

The book provides a comprehensive coverage of economic, financial and legal issues concerning green finance and ESG factor integration in the EU. The first part of the book discusses theoretical and empirical perspectives on socially responsible investments (SRIs) and ESG integration, while the second section focuses specifically on the role of corporate governance in both institutional and private investment spheres. The third part of the book explores valuation and risk, including a discussion of current trends in SRI funding in the new European ESG Regulatory Framework. The final section of the book discusses legal and regulatory issues including an exploration of blue finance and its incorporation into EU financial strategy. This edited collection will be of interest to researchers and policymakers working in green finance, sustainability, energy economics and financial law.

1. Introduction.- 2. Theory of Socially Responsible Investment: A Review.- 3. The Performance of Socially Responsible Investing: A Review.- 4. SRI: An insight on the evolution of its definition and a focus on the European ESG Regulation.- 5. Attractiveness of sustainable business and investments: an ethical, legal or a financial issue?.- 6. ESG Initiatives and Directors’ Fiduciary Duties.- 7. Insurance industry and sustainability preferences: contracts and products.- 8. The role of ESG on Credit Rating in the banking sector: a mediation analysis to disentangle the direct and indirect effects.- 9. The European Blue Economy Framework and Blue Bonds as new instruments of Blue Finance.- 10. The effects of the European Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation on SRI Funds: a comparison at a global level.- 11. ESG targets for the financial sector and the choice of legal instruments.- 12.Environmental, Social & Governance criteria in the Netherlands: interaction between government and the courts.- 13.The language of the European Union about SRI: a diachronic linguistic analysis (2002-2022).

Luca Spataro is a Full Professor in Public Economics and the Head of the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Italy.

Maria Cristina Quirici is an Associate Professor in Financial intermediaries in the Department of Economics and Management, University of Pisa, Italy.

Gabriella Iermano is an Associate Professor in Commercial Law in the Department of Law, University of Pisa, Italy.