The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of audit committee characteristics on environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance for European listed companies. This paper aims to understand how audit committee characteristics, namely, independence, expertise and tenure, influence ESG scores. The reported ESG scores and audit committee characteristics are collected from a sample of companies included in the Refinitiv Eikon database and analysed using a panel data analysis at both the country and industry levels. The sample is composed of 13 member states of the European Union and covers the period from 2018 to 2020. The results show a significant positive effect of audit committee independence and expertise on ESG performance. Moreover, audit committee tenure is found to be negatively associated with the ESG performance. These results are even statistically stronger during the pandemic period. This paper partially validates the significance of audit committee characteristics in improving ESG performance. Our analysis has implications from different perspectives, adding further information and considerations to the ongoing debate that tests the impact of the audit committee quality on ESG performance before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.

本研究的目的是调查审计委员会特征对欧洲上市公司环境、社会和治理 (ESG) 绩效的影响。本文旨在了解审计委员会的特征（即独立性、专业知识和任期）如何影响 ESG 评分。报告的 ESG 分数和审计委员会特征是从 Refinitiv Eikon 数据库中包含的公司样本中收集的，并使用国家和行业层面的面板数据分析进行分析。该样本由欧盟 13 个成员国组成，涵盖 2018 年至 2020 年期间。结果显示审计委员会的独立性和专业知识对 ESG 绩效有显着的积极影响。此外，审计委员会任期与 ESG 绩效呈负相关。在大流行期间，这些结果在统计上甚至更强。本文部分验证了审计委员会特征对改善 ESG 绩效的重要性。我们的分析从不同的角度产生了影响，为正在进行的辩论添加了更多信息和考虑因素，该辩论测试了审计委员会质量对 COVID-19 大流行之前和期间 ESG 绩效的影响。