The emergence of sustainability in business has led to a growing number of market players becoming concerned about ESG rating, which includes environmental, social and governance aspects. Investors are also pricing in the scores generated by ESG indicators. The growing interest in ESG data raises the question of the reliability of the scores provided by different ESG rating agencies. This research explores the differences in the methodologies used by the most reputable ESG rating agencies through a content analysis. The inconsistency of ESG scores will be investigated by taking a random sample of companies in eight pre-selected industries and subjecting them to a correlation test. The purpose of this is to highlight the uncertainties associated with ESG ratings and to draw attention to the fact that ensuring the reliability, consistency, and transparency of ESG information remains an unresolved issue and challenge for both decision makers and users.

A cikk bemutatja, hogy az emissziós jogok mérleg- és beszámoló-képességi kritériumai milyen leképezést tesznek lehetővé a jelenleg érvényes Nemzetközi Pénzügyi Beszámolási Standardokban (IFRS, International Financial Reporting Standards). A vizsgálat fókuszában az üzemeltető áll, aki az Európai Unió kibocsátás-kereskedelmi rendszerének hatálya alá tartozik, azaz ipari tevékenysége folytán szén-dioxiddal szennyezi a Föld légterét. Az üzemeltető mint az emissziós jog tulajdonosa jelenik meg. A cikk megvizsgálja mindazokat a folyamatokat, melynek eredményeképpen birtokolhatja ezeket az egységeket, valamint azt, hogy az IFRS-ek milyen lehetőséget nyújtanak a különböző forrásból származó jogosultságok értékelésére. / === / The author presents that accounting and report ability criteria of the emission rights what mapping allows in the current International Financial Standards. The study focuses on the operator, who is the subject of the European Union Emissions Trading Scheme, whose industrial activities pollute with carbon dioxide to the earth’s atmosphere. The operator, as the owner of emission rights is displayed. This article examines those processes, which resulted in these units may be owned, and that what possibility is provided by IFRSs to evaluate rights from different sources.

Issue 2022/2 of Public Finance Quarterly highlights that investors, regulators, business partners and consumers evaluating the viability and long-term performance of businesses do not only rely on traditional business indicators/metrics, but also on non-financial – environmental, social and governance – risks and opportunities. In their decision-making processes, sustainability (ESG) aspects are increasingly emphasised (Boros at al, 2022). Continuing this thread of thought in an accounting approach, this paper draws attention to an underlying issue with the comparability of ESG reports, which is the absence of measurability and the lack of metric measurement systems. While financial statements are quantified mappings of economic events affecting a company, socio-political expectations and their impacts, which are formulated in ESG reports, are difficult to quantify and display in a measurable form. This research focuses on the quantitative and qualitative measurement, reliability and comparability of ESG indicators, data, ratings, scoring systems and metrics. A content analysis of domestic and international sustainability reports has been carried out and has lead to the conclusion that the problem in assessing environmental, social and corporate governance performance is not to be found in the lack of data, but in the oversupply of tools and frameworks.