Expanding the politics of measurement in sustainable finance: Reconceptualizing environmental, social and governance information as infrastructure

Abstract

The integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations into investment processes, often termed “sustainable finance,” has gained significant traction in the global financial system. Yet, despite its growing significance there remains widespread ambiguity about what sustainable finance refers to. Macro-political oriented studies from different disciplines have traced the evolution of sustainable finance and related it to broader financial and political dynamics like financialization or the rise of private environmental governance. By foregrounding these elements, they have, however, tended to paint a too monolithic picture of sustainable finance and related it to abstract discussions such as whether it is controlled by public or private actors. Micro-political accounts, inspired by Science and Technology Studies, have, by contrast, focused on the nuances and contingencies of amongst other metrics, accounting standards or green bond classification frameworks that make the connection of finance and sustainability possible. While these treatments have provided rich accounts of these technical devices, they de-emphasize the connections and evolutionary dynamics of their objects of study. This article aims to bridge macro- and micro-political treatments of sustainable finance by (re-)conceptualizing the evolution of the field in terms of an emerging and expanding infrastructure of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) information. Drawing from secondary literature, interviews, and participant observation data, it provides a three-staged history of sustainable finance from the perspective of the technical devices making up ESG information. It, thereby, offers a comprehensive view that goes beyond attributing sustainable finance to macro-level trends or isolated micro-level occurrences.