Environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues have nosedived as a priority for businesses as other global and macro matters continue to cause concern.
GlobalData’s Tech Sentiment Polls Q4 2024 report found both that the proportion of respondents who feel that ESG is the theme that will most impact their business in the next 12 months is at one of its lowest points for at least three years and that ESG ranks at its lowest-equal compared to other themes over the same period.
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Of 362 people surveyed across GlobalData’s portfolio of B2B websites during Q4 last year, only 8% thought that ESG would be the theme that would most impact their business in the next 12 months.
That represents a 4pp drop from Q3 2024 when the figure stood at 12%. It has only been lower than 8% during the last three years in Q4 2023 (4%) and Q2 2023 (6%). During the same period, ESG peaked at 20% in Q2 2022, but interest in it among businesses subsequently cratered as the impacts of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 began being felt around the world.
It was also at that point when ESG fell as a priority among businesses compared to other issues. Having been identified as the issue viewed as the third most impactful in Q1 2022 and the second most impactful in the following quarter, ESG has ranked no higher than third since. It fell to fifth in Q4 2023 and fell to fifth again in Q4 2024.
The Russia-Ukraine war (latterly subsumed into a broader ‘geopolitical conflict’ theme for GlobalData’s quarterly survey) is among the issues that have led to the collapse of ESG as a priority for business. It is joined by the related issues of high inflation and cybersecurity.
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By GlobalDataIndeed, high inflation has been the theme about which respondents have been most concerned since Q4 2022, dropping below 43% for only three quarters. Q4 2024 is one of those three, with high inflation regarded by 38% of respondents as likely to be the most impactful issue over the next 12 months. It is followed by geopolitical conflict (32%), cybersecurity (12%) and digitalisation (11%) before ESG.
Of these most recent results, the report states: “This is the ninth quarter in a row that inflation has topped this poll. However, the proportion of participants responding in this way was down 5pp from Q3 2024.
“The proportion of respondents who considered geopolitical conflict the most impactful theme remained steady, climbing to 32% from 29% in the previous quarter. The overthrow of Assad in Syria and the incoming Trump administration in the US are likely keeping fears of spreading conflict alive.”
Elsewhere, the report found that the majority of participants still believe ESG policies are mere marketing, with the share of respondents who think most businesses are fully committed to ESG having fallen from 8% in Q4 2023 to 4% in Q4 2024.
In addition, 45% of respondents viewed legislation and government pressure as the main driver of corporate ESG action in Q4 2024 – more than ever before.
