ESG

New York Yankees Sign UN Climate Action Framework

April 03, 2019

Demonstrating the ongoing pressure from the UN and nongovernmental organizations on businesses to show they are seeking to combat global warming, the New York Yankees baseball club has signed on to the UN Sports for Climate Action Framework, pledging to reduce and offset its carbon emissions and promote “climate awareness.”
US Opposes "Prescriptive" Global Approach to Plastics Regulation

March 18, 2019

At the recent UN Environment Assembly in Nairobi, US diplomats warned against an overly “prescriptive” approach to global governance of plastic waste, opposing the approach proposed by Malaysia and Turkey of creating a legally binding treaty to cut down on plastic production.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.