Sustainability and Implementation of the Non-Financial Reporting Directive in the United Kingdom, Germany and Spain – End of the Beginning?

As a legal innovation, the Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) pushes corporations to step beyond voluntary reporting and seeks to clarify what information they must provide to make their activities more transparent with regard to sustainability goals. This chapter compares how the NFRD has been implemented in the UK (a liberal market economy), Germany (a coordinated market economy) and Spain (a Mediterranean economy). These different systems represent different approaches across the EU, including reflecting the variety of capitalisms identified in this region and beyond. By examining the extent to which these countries coincide with their legislative and practical responses to the requirements laid out in the NFRD, will the NFRD achieve its goal of contributing towards a more sustainable economy? We discuss the implications of the differences across jurisdictions and the EU Green Deal Recovery Plan, and on the contribution of the NFRD to sustainability.