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UK Pushes Contractors on Social, Environmental Agenda
March 14, 2019
The BBC reports that the UK government has announced a plan to require government contractors to take action on labor standards and “environmental sustainability” in their global supply chains.
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UN Launches “Big Data” Environment Initiative at Business Forum
March 13, 2019
During the second session of its Science-Policy-Business Forum, the UN Environment Programme launched an initiative seeking to harness artificial intelligence and other technologies to build massive stores of global data with the aim of advancing the UN’s broad environmental agenda.
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EU Institutions Agree to Standards on Financial Sustainability Disclosures
March 08, 2019
The European Parliament and Council of the EU have agreed to uniform EU standards governing how financial firms must inform investors of the environmental and social impacts of their investment decisions.
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Extractive Initiative Implements NGO Demands in Disclosure Policies
March 07, 2019
The nongovernmental organization Oxfam has applauded the board of the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, a platform for the disclosure of payments by oil, gas, and mining companies to governments, for responding to activist pressure by requiring the disclosure of extractives contracts and mandating gender-based reporting in employment figures.
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Standard Setting Organizations Collaborate on SDG Reporting
March 07, 2019
A group of international corporate reporting standard setters, including the Global Reporting Initiative, has published a position paper describing how they plan to cooperate on standards pushing companies to disclose their impacts on the 169 targets included in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
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NGOs Lament Lack of Action Under French “Vigilance” Law
March 07, 2019
A group of nongovernmental organizations has published a report criticizing the French government for failing to enforce meaningfully the country’s “duty of vigilance” law requiring companies to disclose plans for monitoring their supply chains to prevent human rights abuses.
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NGOs Call for Broad Corporate Reporting Under EU Law
March 06, 2019
A coalition of nongovernmental organizations has produced a report calling on European companies disclosing their social and environmental impacts under the EU’s Non-financial Reporting Directive to use as a model the NGO-produced UNGP Reporting Framework and pushing the EU to sanction companies for non-compliance.
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UN-Supported Initiative Seeks Strengthened Emissions Targets
March 06, 2019
The UN-supported Science Based Targets Initiative has announced updates, based on data from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, to its guidance for companies on greenhouse gas reduction targets to comply with the political goal from the UN’s Paris climate deal to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
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NGO Paper Seeks “Sustainability” Reporting in Banking Industry
March 06, 2019
The Centre for International Governance Innovation has published a report calling on companies in the banking industry to respond to pressure from the UN, activist groups, and global reporting organizations by disclosing how they are dealing with their “sustainability” impacts around the planet.
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UN, GRI Train Companies on SDG Reporting
March 06, 2019
The UN Global Compact and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) have announced a new stage in their partnership pushing companies around the world to adopt guidance on how to report on their contributions to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).