Professional ecologies in European sustainable finance

Abstract

Finding direction in new policy areas requires a combination of mandate, expertise, and stakeholder engagement. Here we investigate the formation of the EU's sustainable finance agenda through activity in and around its High Level Expert Group and Technical Expert Group. Actors from different professional ecologies struggle to determine the treatment of sustainable finance and establish policy practices. Those who shape issue treatments can be supported by a capacity to influence from either official mandate, scientific esteem, or claims to experience. These are contending conjectures to locate action among the professionals engaged in the process. We adjudicate between mandate, esteem, and experience with an assessment of the network ties and career histories of those involved in sustainable finance. Our findings suggest that those with many ties and mixed careers win. Professionals identified as offering access to a potential network of investors exhibit greater control over how issues are treated, to the detriment of civil society actors. We demonstrate likely influence over issue treatment through a discussion of environmental and social disclosures and debt financing mechanisms in European sustainable finance expert groups.

Issue-adoption and campaign structure in transnational advocacy campaigns: a longitudinal network analysis

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“…As Bloomberg (2021) noted, “Paris Aligned Benchmarks (PAB) were first introduced in 2019 as tools to accompany the transition to a low carbon economy by the Technical Expert Group of the European Commission.” However, it is important to note that the “Technical Expert group on sustainable finance” mostly consists of financial firms. Out of 33 members, only 4 are from NGOs, the rest from finance and industry associations (see Seabrooke & Stenström, 2022). In addition, the Expert Group's “low carbon benchmarks” subgroup that proposed Paris‐Aligned Benchmarks consists of one small business consultancy and six financial companies (including MSCI) 23 .…”