Current Situation and Perspective of Sustainability in the Financial Sector: A Closer Look at the “E” in ESG

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is currently a discipline of high interest for academics and professionals. However, its definition and fundamental approaches still do not have a built consensus. Over the last decades, in line with a growing awareness of environmental deterioration, new components of CSR have appeared, as well as other derived concepts, such as sustainable development or sustainability. Sustainability concept incorporates the urgent need to confront the current and future threat that the deterioration of the planet represents for the economic development of society. This concern has translated into the adoption in recent years of different international summits and agreements, in a coordination effort by a multitude of countries so that the world reorients itself towards a more sustainable model. To implement these agreements, it is not only necessary to adapt the regulations, but also to provision the economic resources, where the financial sector plays a transcendental role. The objective of this study is to undertake a theoretical review of the concept of sustainability and the transformation it is causing in the world. In order to do so, the major international sustainability summits will be explained, together with the importance that the financial system has gained for the implementation of their respective commitments, and how the international, European and national initiatives have been developed to progressively facilitate this transformation.