KONVERGENCIJA ESG INDEKSA, EU TAKSONOMIJA I ESG IZVJEŠTAVANJE
CONVERGENCE OF ESG INDEXES, EU TAXONOMY AND ESG REPORTING

Summary/Abstract: The significance of ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) information in accounting disclosure is currently a prominent topic in accounting literature. The implementation of ESG standards in Bosnia and Herzegovina, along with the methodology for rating indexes to individual companies, poses a significant challenge. Globally, the trust of stakeholders in ESG information is diminishing due to the prevalence of greenwashing and social washing. This study investigates differences in rated ESG indexes by agencies and conducts a methodological analysis of financial statement content. It samples 40 ESG indexes of Croatian companies assigned by Bloomberg, Refinitiv, and a manually created index using methodological content analysis for the reporting period of 2022-2023., since ESG indexes reflect a company's overall performance up to a specific point in time. The study aims to determine if there are significant differences in the indexes assigned to Croatian companies by different evaluators. Results indicate no statistically significant difference in the assigned indexes by the three evaluators. T-tests between “Bloomberg ESG index and Refinitiv ESG index”, “Refinitiv ESG index and Manually created ESG index”, show equal mean values. Extending the analysis with a one-factor ANOVA confirms equality among all three evaluators. Recommendations for future research include leveraging sophisticated information technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI) with transparent algorithms, to enhance clarity in ESG indexes, where AI can address inherent challenges in accessing ESG information and potentially reconcile differences resulting from corporate self-reporting and evaluations by ESG agencies.

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