Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Laws: The Future of Sustainable Regulation

Abstract

ESG regulation has moved from voluntary reporting norms to binding, enforceable law, and is now being recalibrated before it has fully matured. This paper reviews that transition across the European Union, India, the ISSB-based jurisdictions and the United States, drawing on legislative texts, regulator publications and peer-reviewed scholarship. It argues that three dynamics define the present phase: (i) a global convergence of disclosure architecture around investor-oriented baselines, set against the EU's double-materiality model; (ii) a politically driven narrowing of scope, most visibly in the EU's Omnibus I Directive (Directive (EU) 2026/470) and the United States' retreat from federal climate disclosure; and (iii) a shift of regulatory attention from disclosure volume to credibility, through assurance, ESG-rating oversight and anti-greenwashing rules. India's SEBI-led BRSR and BRSR Core framework shows how an emerging economy can build assurance-led, phased regulation. The paper identifies persistent gaps, including value-chain data burdens, fragmented definitions, weak private enforcement and thin evidence on regulatory effectiveness, and sets out a research and policy agenda for sustainable regulation.