Facing the Global Hydra: Ecological Transformation at the Global Financial Frontier - The Ambitious Case of the Global Reporting Initiative

Abstract

The article explores the responsiveness of international financial law to environmental values. It starts by decoding the environmental blind-spots of the rules and practices of contemporary financial reporting. It then goes on to consider alternative reporting schemes, such as the Global Reporting Initiative sustainability reporting framework, and other disclosure schemes such as the U.S. Toxic Release Inventory program and the European Pollution Emissions Register. The GRI reporting framework - manifested by the new "G3 Guidelines" that were released in October 2006 (replacing the previous 2002 version) - challenges the commitment of international financial law and the accounting practices associated with it, to the narrative of homo investicus (the legal reflection of the homo economicus). The article sketches the contours of this global regulatory initiative and evaluates its potential to transform current corporate practices. The article also argues that in its holistic thinking the GRI scheme goes beyond compulsory disclosure schemes such as the TRI. Finally the article also evaluates the environmental blind spots of the GRI scheme.

Keywords: environmental reporting, international financial law, Global Reporting Initiative, GRI, homo economicus

JEL Classification: K20, K32