Building on the success of the Interdisciplinary Journal of Economics and Business Law (IJEBL) ESG Special Report published in Volume 10 (2021), the tenth anniversary volume of IJEBL and featured in the much - viewed Business Day Dialogue of 9 November 2021 also supported by KAS, and the Second ESG Report published in IJEBL Volume 11 published in November 2022 we assess the Third Phase of the future of ESG success by looking at the current definition of ESG and how success is based on the strength of disclosures to integrate ESG principles.

We concentrate on an extended analysis of ESG practice in the UK’s City of London and South Africa’s Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) featured in the first Report and carry on from the analysis in the Second Report showing that ESG has widened in its remit and has developed a variety of strategies to progress ESG becoming embedded and an integral part of daily company policy and action. ESG has moved away from a marketing and public relations perspective that were often exaggerated to actual reflection as to what can be realistically be achieved mainly in this phase through a high standard of disclosure.

The war in Ukraine and the severe effects of the energy crisis has caused asset managers and companies to reflect as to what they can realistically deliver. Regulators are becoming more aware as well of the difference between greenwashing and genuine adherence to ESG principles. Regulators are also becoming stricter, banishing companies from ratings and ESG compliant lists for not practicing all three components of ESG. There is a recognition that all three components of ESG are interlinked. The most important progress at this stage is that there is an overall movement towards realisation, especially in the City of London, Europe, and in the JSE that in the near future, non-compliant companies will be ostracised from the world economy.