El mercado de verificación de la información sobre sostenibilidad en Europa
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.51302/rcyt.2024.22315Palabras clave:
memorias de sostenibilidad, verificación de sostenibilidad, mercado de verificación, greenwashing, neutralidad de la información, desempeño ESG, Unión Europea, Directiva (UE) 2014/95, Directiva (UE) 2022/2464Resumen
La Directiva (UE) 2022/2464 pretende consolidar y perfeccionar los avances en materia de transparencia corporativa logrados por la Directiva (UE) 2014/95 estableciendo un conjunto de iniciativas orientadas a equiparar la información sobre sostenibilidad con la información financiera garantizando el acceso digital a datos comparables y fiables por parte de los grupos de interés. En este sentido, establece como requisito obligatorio que la información sobre sostenibilidad presentada por las empresas sea verificada por un profesional independiente, que estará sujeto a requisitos asimilables a los previstos actualmente para los auditores de cuentas. En la idea de que conocer mejor la evolución experimentada por las empresas de la Unión Europea en materia de verificación de información sobre sostenibilidad puede ser de ayuda ante el advenimiento de su carácter obligatorio, este trabajo presenta el estado actual del mercado de verificación en Europa, determinando las cuotas de mercado de los diferentes proveedores del servicio y las implicaciones que tiene la selección de estos profesionales sobre el desempeño en materia de sostenibilidad a nivel empresarial y la neutralidad de la información sobre sostenibilidad divulgada. Los resultados obtenidos para una muestra de 1.687 grandes empresas europeas en el periodo 2010-2022 evidencian que la publicación de la Directiva (UE) 2014/95 ha conllevado un importante desarrollo del mercado de verificación en Europa, especialmente en aquellos países en los que en su transposición se incorporó la obligatoriedad de la contratación de este servicio. Las compañías analizadas apuestan por la contratación de auditores financieros versus consultores, lo que tiene consecuencias importantes para el desempeño en materia de sostenibilidad de las compañías analizadas y la contención de prácticas de greenwashing en sus informes de sostenibilidad.
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