Introduction

The ESG agenda today dictates that companies should be guided by the principles of responsible investment and lay them at the basis of their systems of environmental management and corporate social environment management. Despite the fact that in Russia the formation of a legislative framework in the field of sustainable development is under development, due to the difficulties in its implementation, the need to combine all the experience gained in providing non-financial information by Russian companies and foreign companies, to determine the direction of the development of this initiative precisely in Russian realities, The Ministry of Economic Development received a fairly clear signal from large state corporations in the urgent need to bring non-financial reporting into the legal field. The planned Draft Federal Law “On Public Non-Financial Reporting” states that the report on activities in the field of sustainable development is a document focused on a wide range of stakeholders, containing information and indicators that comprehensively reflect the approaches and results of the organization's activities on issues of social responsibility and sustainable development, including economic, environmental, social aspects and management systems. In addition to the Ministry of Economic Development, the implementation of the principles of responsible financing is supported by the Bank of Russia, which at the end of 2020 created the Working Group on Sustainable Development Financing, which sets the strategic agenda in this area and monitors its implementation. All these trends are reflected in the emergence of new forms of non-financial and integrated reporting, and in a certain way can be reflected directly in the financial statements of companies.

Mainpart

First of all, it is necessary to analyze and compare the objectives of financial and non-financial reporting, indicated by Russian and international normative documents. According to the Financial Reporting Framework, which is the philosophy of the International Financial Reporting Standards, the purpose of general-purpose financial reporting is to provide financial information on the reporting organization, which is useful to existing and potential investors, lenders and other lenders in their decisions to provide resources to the organization. This definition continues with different types of resources, such as various forms of lending [Stepanova O.S., 2022]. According to Federal Law No. 402-FZ “On Accounting”, the purpose of accounting (financial) statements is to provide a reliable representation of the financial position of an economic entity as of the reporting date, the financial result of its activities and the cash flow for the reporting period, which is necessary for users of these statements to make economic decisions [Sustainable development, 2022]. The difference between International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and Russian Accounting Standards (RAS) is only that IFRS specifies the type of economic decisions. In the Draft Federal Law on non-financial reporting, the Ministry of Economic Development does not clearly indicate the purpose of this type of reporting, which can be adjusted during further work on this document, so we turn to the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), uniform standards and recommendations reporting, disclosing non-financial performance indicators [Sustainalytics ESG, 2022]. GRI 1:Foundation 2021 Standart, as part of the updated Universal Standards for Sustainability Reporting, articulates the objective of sustainability reporting as follows “the objective of sustainability reporting using the GRI Sustainability Reporting Standards (GRI Standards) is to provide transparency on how an organization contributes or aims to contribute to sustainable development”. [Girella L. Zambon S, 2019]. From the point of view of signaling theory, it is an important aspect of the formation of the company's image [Draft Federal Law, 2017]. T.N. Solovey and D.D. Shvachko in their article “Non-financial reporting as an element of signaling theory”, based on the analysis of non-financial reporting according to the 10 principles of GRI 2016 of the largest chemical industries, concluded that the approach to the formation of non-financial reporting was based on the basic principles of signaling theory, when, in order to increase the level of competitiveness, they are guided by the behavior of the most significant player [Solovey T.N., Shvachko D.D., 2020]. It can be said with full confidence that now any economic decision, including the provision of resources to the company, cannot be made only based on financial indicators.

Since the requirements for the composition, format and disclosure of non-financial reporting are advisory in nature, therefore, the reports of different companies can differ radically from each other, which makes it difficult for interested users to perceive non-financial information, complicates the comparative analysis of selected ratios and indicators in the area of interest, the assessment of the level of implementation the planned development strategies of the company, environmental monitoring and social aspects of activities [Lebedev I.V., 2013].

These problems can be eliminated not only with the formation and clear development of the regulatory framework in the field of sustainable development, but also with certain innovations in the field of financial reporting. If indicators characterizing the level of implementation of sustainable development goals were introduced into the financial statements, this would allow information users to clearly determine the degree of transparency in the implementation of environmental and social initiatives of the company [Lisovskaya I.A., Chipurenko E.V., 2018]. In Russian accounting practice, there are concepts of “conditional asset” and “conditional liability”, which are enshrined at the legislative level in RAS 8/2010 “Estimated liabilities, conditional liabilities and conditional assets”, approved by Order of the Ministry of Finance of December 13, 2010 No. 167-n. The prerequisites for the emergence of this standard are the international practice accumulated by that time for accounting and reporting contingent assets and liabilities. If we turn to the history of the development of accounting for these special categories of assets and liabilities, then the first source can rightfully be called the IAS 10 “Contingencies and Events After the Balance Sheet Date”, adopted in 1978, which proposes the introduction of a new term “contingency”, which in economic interpretation is a broad concept, namely a certain situation or condition that arose in the past, in which the financial result will be affected in the future, with the occurrence or non-occurrence of certain events. Further development and refinement of this standard predetermined the appearance of the current IAS 37 “Reserves, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets”, which introduced new concepts and interpretations, for example, estimated liabilities. The practice and theory of Russian accounting responded to this with the appearance of RAS 8/2010, mentioned above, according to which a contingent asset and a contingent liability are due to certain facts of economic activity in the past, depend on the likelihood of future events that are not controlled by the organization, and are not subject to reflection in the accounting (financial) statements, but disclosed in the notes to these statements, which is consistent with the interpretation in accordance with IFRS [IAS 10, 2022].

Approaches to the reflection in accounting and reporting of certain accounting objects are due to the challenges that exist in the external environment, and one of them, of course, is the transition to the era of responsible investment [Bolotova O.V., 2021]. In addition to the emergence and development of non-financial reporting, it is possible to carry out the process of adjusting and clarifying requirements directly in financial reporting. Since non-financial reporting, unlike financial reporting, does not have a clear and unified structure, the perception of information on the implementation of sustainable development goals is difficult, the author proposes to introduce a new signal block into the financial statements as part of the Notes to the financial statements, which can be designated as “ESG-block”, which will present the “ESG-Balance Sheet” proposed by the author, allowing all interested users to clearly assess the degree of implementation of the company's sustainable development goals [GRI 1, 2022].

To implement this idea, the author proposes to make terminological adjustments to the definition of a contingent asset and a contingent liability. First, theres is need to indicate that their occurrence can also be due to the implementation of sustainable development goals and can be controlled by the organization. As a special type of conditional asset, a new terminology proposed by the author can be used “ESG asset” and “ESG liability”, which should be reflected in special accounting accounts of a special kind, combining the functions of various types of accounts used in accounting, but not reflected in the accounting (financial) statements, but reflected in a special ESG balance sheet, which will be introduced as a separate Note to the accounting (financial) statements [Pilyuk R.A., 2021]. Thus, a kind of hybrid accounting system arises, based on common approaches to determining the recognition of an asset and a liability in financial reporting, using accounting methodology, but generating reporting that occupies a special place between financial and non-financial reporting. The main of the most difficult issues of hybrid accounting for contingent assets and liabilities is their valuation. Currently, there are ESG ratings generated by various agencies, for example, Sustainalytics ESG Risk Rating, CDP Climate Change and many others, but since there is no single approach to their formation, scores are formed in different ways, which may distort the final result. As a meter in the hybrid accounting system, it is proposed to use a traditional monetary meter, the size of which must be determined based on the average costs of leading companies in the industry for the implementation of sustainable development goals, for example, in the oil and gas industry, as a rule, such costs are calculated in billions of rubles, percentage indicators in the field of ecology and management should be taken in the calculation of one percent, equal to one billion. Below is a possible implementation of such an approach in assessing the implementation of the goals and objectives of sustainable development in a fragmented version.

Таблица 1

Матрица целей устойчивого развития

Table 1

SustainableDevelopmentGoalMatrix

From the point of view of the hybrid accounting system proposed by the author, the reflection of the goals set and their implementation according to the data in the table above can have the following algorithm. At the beginning of the financial year, a planned ESG asset and a planned ESG liability should be recorded using the double-entry method on hybrid accounts (Debit of “ESG-Asset Planned” Account, Credit of “ESG-Liability Planned” Account, 35 billion rubles), characterizing the planned indicator. At the end of the financial year the following record would be made (Debit of “ESG-Asset Actual” Account, Credit of “ESG-Liability Actual” Account, 30 billion rubles), characterizing the actual performance of these indicators. The implementation of the achieved goals has a positive effect on the economic decisions made by investors and, in general, forms a certain level of confidence in the company, which can also be subjected to a numerical definition. As a rule, economic decisions relate to the issue of providing resources to a given enterprise, from the point of view of public joint-stock companies this is expressed in an active demand for the purchase of shares of this company at a price offered by the market, which is nothing more than market capitalization, which is influenced by various factors, including the ESG image of the company. Therefore, in addition to the introduction of new accounting categories in the hybrid accounting system, the author proposes the introduction of the concept of “ESG capital”, which is the source of the formation of an ESG asset. Thus, at the end of the financial year, the following record would be made related to the formation of this type of capital and the repayment of the planned ESG liability (Debit of “ESG-Liability Planned” Account, Credit of “ESG Capital Actual”, 30 billion rubles). The ESG balance sheet, closing of hybrid accounting accounts and balance sheet rules will use generally recognized accounting methodology.

Таблица 2

  ESG баланс в млрд.руб.

Table 2

ESG-Balance Sheet, billion rubles