Can the Homo Economicus Save the World? Finding the Sweet Spot between Greenwashing and Greenblushing.

ESG risk scores of European public companies have improved since the ESG wave took off, but the evolution remains modest and, to a certain extent, in trompe l’oeil (i.e., the overall quantity of ESG risk is still on a rising trend and the environmental dimension keeps on lagging behind the other two). The good news, though, is that we do find some anecdotal evidence that investors could have started, at least in some sectors, to discriminate among companies based on their ESG profiles. The challenge today is clearly to shift gears. Unfortunately, if the homo economicus seems at first sight to have significant room to improve its ESG risk profile, its capacity to accompany, let alone drive, the transition of our socioeconomic system toward sustainability is much more questionable, at least for now, given the ESG characteristics of listed companies. This is a gentle reminder, to all the agents in the system, that we are still far away from the objective, and that they/we are all part of the solution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]