ESG

Campaign Pressures Investors on Climate Risk Management

July 25, 2017

The Guardian reports that, as part of the expanding agenda pushing financial institutions to publicly disclose the risks climate change poses to their portfolios, the Asset Owner Disclosure Project recently released an index rating asset owners and managers on a scale from "laggards" to "leaders" on how they manage financial risks related to global warming.
Businesses Push G20 on Climate Disclosure

July 25, 2017

At an April World Economic Forum meeting in Geneva, a group of CEOs called on leaders from the Group of 20 countries (G20) to act on the findings of the global Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure by expanding pressure on financial companies to publicly report the risks that global warming poses to their investments.
UN Agent Investigates Tax Avoidance in Panama

July 25, 2017

In May, the UN Independent Expert on foreign debt and human rights Juan Pablo Bohoslavsky visited Panama to investigate how the country is handling "illicit financial flows" from businesses and individuals following the revelations of tax avoidance in the so-called "Panama Papers" leaked in 2015.
Article: Counsel Must Play Role in "Corporate Citizenship"

July 21, 2017

An article from former General Electric Vice President and General Counsel Ben Heineman paints a broad picture of the need for general counsel to steer their corporations toward a concept of "corporate citizenship" resembling the "environmental, social, and governance" responsibilities recommended for businesses by UN agencies and activist groups.
Paper: Business-led Reporting Schemes Are Ineffective

July 21, 2017

A group of academics has published a paper warning that the growing activist movement, beginning to take hold in the form of government regulation, toward business audits of their global supply chains to monitor and report environmental and human rights impacts is ineffective and merely serves as an "industry-led privatization of global governance."
UN, GRI Develop Guidance for Corporate SDG Reporting

July 20, 2017

As part of their Action Platform called "Reporting on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)," representatives from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the UN Global Compact convened in March in The Hague to collaborate on the formation of guidance for companies on how to publicly report their compliance with and contributions to the SDGs.
NGOs, UN Partner to Benchmark SDG Contributions

July 19, 2017

The WWF project Gold Standard and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change are launching a "Gold Standard for the Global Goals" that will measure contributions from the public and private sectors toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and pressure businesses to help fulfill the UN's social and environmental agenda.
Business Leader: G20 Should Set Collective Climate Regulations

July 19, 2017

BASF’s Kurt Bock, Chairman of the Business-20 (B20) Taskforce on Energy, Climate & Resource Efficiency, argues that the Group of 20 (G20) nations must set collective climate policies to avoid creating competitive disadvantages for businesses.
Human Rights Leaders Call for “Transformative” Policy Changes

July 19, 2017

Speakers at a recent event on human rights and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) hosted by the Danish Institute for Human Rights called for the public and private sectors to incorporate human rights goals into their policies, including through corporate human rights impact assessments, “to unleash the transformative potential of the 2030 Agenda.”
Australian Network Hosts Forum on Labor Reporting

July 17, 2017

The Global Compact Network Australia, a local entity affiliated with the UN Global Compact corporate responsibility initiative, recently hosted a forum in Sydney exploring the potential adoption of an Australian Modern Slavery Act that would require businesses to report on their efforts to end forced labor in their complex, global supply chains.