Is ESG Signalling Civilisational Decline? With Jeet Sidhu - WBD530

In this interview, I talk to Jeet Sidhu and we discuss whether
the promotion of obviously deficient ESG standards is a signal of
a wider societal malaise: decivilisation, overregulation,
political incompetence and consistent policy failures. Is human
flourishing on the ropes?


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Environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) is a
framework that was established by the UN in coordination with
financial institutions in 2004. It was an attempt to expand the
boundaries of the Friedman doctrine, which limits the social
responsibility of businesses to increasing shareholder value. ESG
essentially seeks to introduce altruistic goals for businesses.


The business community's reaction has been both rational and
ironic: it has sought to use and capture ESG to maximise profits
for shareholders. According to Bloomberg, ESG is the fastest
growing asset management class, which is expected to exceed $50
trillion in value this year. Yet, according to EY, ESG is
confusing, opaque, and subject to rampant greenwashing.


Is this exploitation of a worthy initiative an isolated anomaly
that can be corrected? Or, is it evidence of a wider and more
malevolent decline in society? The reality is that this isn’t the
only major fault within our systems. Everyone is aware of the
soft corruption of competence and the hard corruption of honesty.
These have cascaded and infected our institutions.


We now live in a world that has exploited and tainted progressive
language: selfish designs are hidden behind worthy declarations.
We have rejected hard truths in return for expedient fiction. To
what end? Are we more resilient? Do we have more efficient
systems? Is society fairer? Seemingly not. This seems like an
existential decline. Now is the time for honest new ideas.