The sustainable development efforts worldwide are driven by Agenda 2030, a global action plan established in 2015 by the United Nations, comprising 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving these goals requires actions from public, private, and third sector. Governments with primary responsibility on advancing Agenda 2030 need to find solutions to engage stakeholders across societal sectors to foster commitment and accountability on sustainable development (Abhayawansa et al., 2021). New coalitions and sustainable governance platforms are being formed to inspire and engage diverse actors. These new forms of organising are blurring the boundaries between public, private, and third sector, introducing hybrid forms of governance and social control over the progress on sustainable development (Vakkuri et al., 2021; Nylén et al., 2023).

One central function of these platforms, as governance tools, is to facilitate ownership and accountability on sustainable development impacts through voluntary commitments. Accountability on the policy implementation is based on self-imposed commitments instead of external government regulation and mandates, transferring from vertical relations and bureaucratic control to a complex web of stakeholders and lateral accountabilities (Grossi et al., 2022). This can be seen as one response to the limitations of contemporary accountability systems the mechanisms of which are not perfectly fit with the hybridity, value plurality and multi-laterality of sustainability policy agendas where the pursuit of sustainability as a public value evades organizational mandates and vertical information flows (Vakkuri and Grossi, 2024). Understandably, traditional assumptions and models of accountors and accountees are under critical scrutiny (Mulgan, 2000; Nicholls, 2009; Grossi et al., 2022).

Previous studies have investigated the introduction of voluntary accountability (e.g., Koop, 2014), but how accountability based on voluntary commitments and platform governance should be understood warrants further investigation. In particular, the SDG context remains limitedly studied in accounting and management research (Bebbington & Unerman, 2020). Our theoretical framework combines the assumptions and notions of accountability with an extensive theorization of voluntary disclosures, commitments, and promissory economy to understand the evolving characteristics and problems of accountability in the era of sustainability (Bovens et al., 2008; Mouritsen and Kreiner, 2016).

Through an explorative case study of Sitoumus 2050, a Finnish digital platform for promoting Agenda 2030, we capture accountabilization of the actors across different sectors (public, private, third sector organisations, citizens). Focusing on their ’promises’ on contributing to SDGs and national sustainability programs, we examine this arising concept of ‘commitment-based’ accountability. More specifically, companies, municipalities, public organizations and citizens can make voluntary commitments by setting measurable goals for their activities and reporting their progress through the Sitoumus online service. Commitment-makers assume the duty to account for their actions, share information on their performance, and evaluate their own progress at Sitoumus 2050 platform.

Empirically, we use document analysis and interviews to scrutinize accountability mechanisms on the Sitoumus 2050 platform. Moreover, we develop ´commitment-based’ accountability as a theoretical concept for settings where actors voluntarily participate and demonstrate their accountability in promoting sustainable development. Our study provides insights on this novel form of accountability, and potential consequences for the implementation of sustainable development policies as well as for further enhancing citizen participation in democratic governance.

On 25 September 2015, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted a set of 17 SDGs to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda, the "2030 Agenda". Though to reach SDGs represents a big challenge for all countries, however the achievement of these goals it’s not an easy task, since it demands the mobilization of national resources, and their success depends to effective Public Financial Management (PFM). Based on lessons from MDGs, governments need to systemically translate their high-level policy priorities into budget decisions and deliver via domestic budget processes. As it is stated in the note published by UNDP titled “Budgeting for the Sustainable Development Goals: Aligning domestic budgets with the SDGs”, “When SDGs become part of the country’s national policy framework, it is crucial that the process is then followed by SDG integration into the countries’ budgetary frameworks”.

Greece is strongly committed to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and its 17 SDGs. Through an open dialogue within all government units and with the participation of all interested stakeholders, a mapping exercise has been carried out in 2017, which resulted in the endorsement of eight National Priorities for adapting the 17 SDGs to national needs and circumstances, also in line with the adopted National Growth Strategy. As mentioned in the Greece’s first Voluntary National Report (VNR) on the implementation of the 2030 Agenda published in 2017, for building a robust long-lasting institutional mechanism to coordinate national efforts for achieving the SDGs, Greece has successfully endorsed a “whole-of-government” approach, with an active operational Inter-Ministerial Coordination Network, steered by the General Secretariat of the Government, and a “whole-of-society” approach with a strong stakeholder engagement in the gap analysis and stock-taking process, enhancing transparency and accountability.

Furthermore, according to the second VNR published in 2022, Greece remains fully committed to the Agenda 2030, since the 17 Goals are embedded in all its major binding political plans, while Greece has also integrated the sustainability principle and the SDGs into the better regulation agenda, the national budgetary process and the overall financing framework for sustainable development.

The purpose of the proposed paper is on the one hand to explore the extend of SDGs integration into Greece’s budgetary framework following the adoption of SDGs in the national policy framework already in 2002 and on the other hand to propose measures for the improvement of the above process of SDG integration into Greece’s budgetary system, indicatively an SDG prioritisation diagnostic, an analysis of Greece’s SDG plans etc.

Regarding research methodology, all available budgetary documents will be examined, i.e. the draft budget, the final voted National Budget, the introductory report, the Performance Budget, including the “Green” Budget, the presentations regarding the budgetary process made by the Greek government for transparency purposes, etc, in order to explore the extend of SDG integration into Greece’s budgetary framework. Useful tools for the evaluation of SDGs integration into Greece’s budgetary framework could be different handbooks and guidebooks published by the UNDP regarding the issue of budgeting for the SDGs.

As a preliminary finding, it should be noted that although Greece has incorporated SDGs in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP), the Annual Ministerial Action Plans and Consolidated Governmental Policy Plan and the National Reform Plan (NRP), has not yet fully integrated SDGs into Greece’s budgetary framework. Of course, important initiatives have been taken for the implementation of SDGs and their integration in the budgetary framework. More precisely, in 2021 the Ministry of Finance integrated, for the first time, sustainability and environmental footprint indicators in the process of drafting and implementing the State Budget, within the framework of a green budgeting, performance budgeting and spending review reform, while has completed in 2022 two main actions associated with the implementation of the above issues, i.e. the configuration of a basic methodology for green budget tagging and the classification of environmental friendly- aggravating - neutral funded policies and the pilot implementation of the green budgeting approach to selected programs of performance budgeting (SDGs 17.14, 16.6). On the other hand, other important initiatives have not succeeded. Thus, the inclusion of gender budgeting in the State Budget, although legislated in 2019, has not been implemented to date for the evaluation of gender equality policies. Finally, the implementation of SDGs is expected to be facilitated by the digital transformation of the Ministry of Finance and precisely the implementation of the new information system, called “govERP”, which aims to reform the Fiscal System of Central Government and the rest of General Government.

The political commitment for the achievement of SDGs is crucial. Nevertheless, it is important for the countries, including Greece, to integrate SDGs into budgetary framework and to estimate the part of national budgets that contributes to accomplish SDGs.

References

Buddlender Debbie, and Rhonda Sharp, with Kerri Allen (1998), How to do a gender-sensitive budget analysis: Contemporary research and practice. London and Canberra: Commonwealth Secretariat and AusAid.

Daniele Guariso, Gonzalo Castañeda, Omar A. Guerrero, Budgeting for SDGs: Quantitative methods to assess the potential impacts of public expenditure, Development Engineering, Volume 8, 2023, 100113, ISSN 2352-7285, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.deveng.2023.100113. (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352728523000076).

Elson, Diane (2002), Gender responsive budget initiatives: Some key dimensions and practical example, in: Gender budgeting initiatives. Strategies, concepts and experiences, Papers from a High Level International Conference “Strengthening Economic and Financial Governance through Gender Responsive Budgeting”, 16-18 October 2001, Brussels.

European Commission, How Green Budgeting is Embedded in National Budget Processes, Discussion Paper 196, November 2023, prepared by Simona Pojar, available at: https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/c12ebe1d-442f-4ee1-bfae-7bbfe06f9098_en?filename=dp196_en.pdf

European Commission, Green Budget Europe. Environmental Fiscal Reform: Key For The European Semester To Deliver, available at: https://ec.europa.eu/environment/integration/green_semester/pdf/green_budget.pdf.

European Union Green Budgeting Reference Framework, 20 January 2022, available at: https://economy-finance.ec.europa.eu/document/download/bfd8d6c1-d501-4cf2-873f-811f6453dde8_en?filename=European%20Union%20Green%20Budgeting%20Reference%20Framework.pdf

Hellenic Republic (HR) 2018. Voluntary National Review On The Implementation Of The 2030 Agenda For Sustainable Development Greece. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/ documents/19378Greece_VNR_Greece_2018_pdf_FINAL_140618.pdf

Hellenic Republic (HR) 2022. Voluntary National Review On The Implementation Of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Greece.

IBP 2017 (International Budget Project). Tracking Spending on the SDGs: What have we learned from the MDGs? https://www.internationalbudget.org/wp-content/uploads/tracking-spendingsustainable-development-goals-ibp-budget-brief-2017.pdf

INTOSAI (2020): IDI’s SDGs Audit Model (ISAM), INTOSAI Development Initiative, https://www.idi.no/ work-streams/relevant-sais/auditing-sdgs/audit-sdgs-implementation/isam

OECD (2019), OECD Good Practices for Performance Budgeting, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi. Budgeting for the SDGs A Modular Handbook Annex org/10.1787/c90b0305-en.

OECD (2019), “Financing climate objectives in cities and regions to deliver sustainable and inclusive growth”, OECD Environment Policy Papers, No. 17, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://dx.doi.org/10.1787/ee3ce00b-en.

OECD (2020), OECD Green Budgeting Framework: Highlights, available at: http://www.oecd.org/environment/green-budgeting/OECD-Green-Budgeting-Framework-Highlights.pdf.

OECD (2020b), “Green budgeting and tax policy tools to support a green recovery”, OECD Policy Responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19), OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/bd02ea23-en.

OECD (2021), Green Budgeting in OECD countries, OECD Publishing, Paris, available at: https://doi.org/10.1787/acf5d047-en, https://www.oecd.org/publications/green-budgeting-in-oecd-countries-acf5d047-en.htm.

OECD (2021), Green Budget Tagging: Introductory Guidance & Principles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/fe7bfcc4-en.

OECD; European Commission (2020), OECD and European Commission - 2020 Joint Survey on Emerging Green Budgeting Practices.

PEFA, Public Expenditure and Financial Accountability: www.pefa.org and https://www.pefa.org/news/ revised-guidance-subnational-government-pefa-assessments-available-piloting

Robinson, Marc 2013b. Program Classification for Performance-Based Budgeting: How to Structure Budgets to Enable the Use of Evidence. Washington, D.C.: Independent Evaluation Group, World Bank. https://www.pfmresults.com/files/Program-Classification-December-2013.pdf

United Nations (UN) 2020a. Tier Classification for Global SDG Indicators as of 28 December 2020. NY: Inter-agency and Expert Group on Sustainable Development Goal Indicators. https://unstats.un.org/ sdgs/files/Tier%20Classification%20of%20SDG%20Indicators_28%20Dec%202020_web.pdf

UNDP 2020. Budgeting for the Sustainable Development Goals: Aligning domestic budgets with the SDGs, Guidebook.

UNDP 2022. Budgeting for the Sustainable Development Goals, Modular Handbook.

UNDP 2022. Budgeting for the Sustainable Development Goals, Origins and Practices.

World Bank. 2013. Beyond the Annual Budget : Global Experience with Medium-Term Expenditure Frameworks. Washington, DC: World Bank. https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/ handle/10986/11971 World Bank 2015. Managing Change in PFM System Reforms A Guide for Practitioners.

World Bank, Financial Management Information Systems Community of Practice. http://documents.worldbank. org/curated/en/993981509959603664/pdf/120928-3-11-2017-7-50-10-ManagingChangeinPFMSys temReformsFMISGuidanceNote.pdf

World Bank. 2021a. Climate Change Budget Tagging : A Review of International Experience. Equitable Growth, Finance and Institutions Insight;. World Bank, Washington, DC. https://openknowledge. worldbank.org/handle/10986/35174

Purpose of the paper:

The global trend of several and interconnected (environmental, migration, etc.) crisis has put governments under severe pressure to provide sustainable solutions. Public administrations have concentrated on challenges of environmental, economic, and social issues to provide services with no harm for future generations. This challenges of improving well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities (UN, 2023), have been called the green economy. According to Eurostat, government spending has presented on average almost 50% of economy measured by gross domestic product (GDP) in EU countries in year 2022. In this context, our paper is predominately dealing with public spending impact on sustainability development goals (SDGs).

The recent studies revealed that the green economy helped by government regulations should make balance between economic development, energy conservation, and environmental protection. This help can be established by increasing the budget expenditures but also as various other mechanisms, such as subsidies, tax breaks, preferential taxation, etc. to promote the green innovations and green economic growth. Green innovations focus on improvements and renovations that affect emission control, pollution reduction and cost savings (Zhang et al., 2020). It turned out that different government mechanisms, which aim is to reduce the economic risks associated with green innovations have different effect in different circumstances/countries. They might be ineffective or statistically insignificant or might even cause market distortions (Liang et al., 2022). In this context, different “green” development measures should be tailored to maximize the role of fiscal spending on the green economy as much as possible (Lin & Zhu, 2019). Liang et al., 2022 proved that both, subsidies and tax breaks have a positive effect on green innovation, while companies with a longer tradition (older) and larger companies are more interested in subsidies and tax breaks, and consequently show greater interest in green innovation. Similar findings are reported by the authors Song et al., 2020, whereby the positive effect on green innovation is particularly evident in the case of tax credits for research and development, which play an important role in promoting green product innovation.

Research methodology:

The research methodology is based on statistical data processing using linear regression modelling of the impact of government mechanisms, including various green credits, subsidies, R&D incentives, and budget expenditures on the SDGs (12 in 13). Consequently, the input-output model has been created, in which the inputs (independent variables) were 1. the amounts of credits and 2. subsidies provided by Slovenian agency for ecological issues (in Slovene: “Ekosklad”), 3. the amounts of tax incentives for companies investing in research and development and 4. the amounts of government budget expenditures for environmental protection. The outputs (dependant variables) were the selected indicators of SDGs. The analysis evaluates the impacts of different government mechanisms on the selected indicators of SDGs, with a lag of 1 (one year), with a lag of 2 (two years) and with a lag of 3 (three years). For each pair of independent and dependent variables, three types of partial regressions were performed: linear OLS regression, robust regression, and Huber robust regression.

Main findings and implications:

The analysis focuses on environmental topics within SDGs, which were analysed using indicators of SDG 12 (Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns) and SDG13 (Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts). The results have generally revealed that approved credits and subsidies for green investments positively affect emission intensity and the average CO2 emissions, while tax incentives have on average reduced the emissions intensity with a time lag of one or two years. The budgetary expenditures on environmental protection for households have reduced the emission intensity of energy consumption with a lag of three years.

References:

Liang, H., Li, G., Zhang, W., & Chen, Z. (2022). The impact of green innovation on enterprise performance: The regulatory role of government grants. Sustainability, 14(20), 13550.

Lin, B., & Zhu, J. (2019). Fiscal spending and green economic growth: Evidence from China. Energy Economics, 83, 264-271.

OECD. (2017). Government at a glance 2017. Paris: OECD Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1787/gov_glance-2017-en Accessed 20 june. 2018.

Song, M., Wang, S., & Zhang, H. (2020). Could environmental regulation and R&D tax incentives affect green product innovation?. Journal of Cleaner Production, 258, 120849

UN (2023). Sustainable Development Goals. https://www.un.org/sustainabledevelopment/economic-growth/

UNEP, 2011. Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to Sustainable Development and Poverty Eradication. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3159605.

Zhang, J., Kang, L., Li, H., Ballesteros-Pérez, P., Skitmore, M., & Zuo, J. (2020). The impact of environmental regulations on urban Green innovation efficiency: The case of Xi'an. Sustainable Cities and Society, 57, 102123.

Higher education institutions (HEIs) play a pivotal role in advancing the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by integrating these goals into their academic missions, governance and operations, community engagements and disclosure practices. This study examines the impact of governance characteristics on the quality of SDG online disclosures among public HEIs in Italy and Portugal. Using a content analysis of 90 HEIs' websites, we develop an SDG e-reporting quality index to assess the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of these disclosures. Our findings reveal that Portuguese HEIs generally demonstrate higher SDG disclosure quality compared to their Italian counterparts. Key governance factors, such as the presence of sustainability committees and the hierarchical level of female leadership, significantly influence the quality of these disclosures. The study underscores the need for enhanced transparency and accountability in HEIs and suggests that structured governance efforts and standardized reporting frameworks are critical for improving SDG reporting practices. These findings offer valuable insights for policymakers and university administrators aiming to strengthen the role of HEIs in achieving global sustainability goals.