ESG

NGOs Push Garment Supply Chain Transparency

July 14, 2017

A group of nongovernmental organizations has published a report calling on businesses in the garment and footwear industries to publicly disclose comprehensive information regarding their suppliers, which would permit civil society groups to place greater pressure on companies to call out alleged labor rights violations in their supply chains.
Shell CEO Calls for Transparency on Climate Risk

July 14, 2017

Showing the growing acceptance of the "climate disclosure" movement among energy companies, the CEO of Dutch oil giant Shell has stated that such companies should be more transparent about internal climate change risk assessments and how future government regulations cutting carbon emissions could jeopardize their oil and gas investments.
US Pulls Back from Extractive Disclosure Rules

July 13, 2017

Zorka Milin of the nongovernmental organization Global Witness reviews the decisions by the Trump Administration and allies in Congress to pull back from rules requiring the reporting of payments to governments made by oil, gas, and mining companies.
UN Creates Bank Framework for Climate Reporting

July 12, 2017

Spurred on by recent recommendations of a G20 task force charged with examining the need for climate change-related disclosures by financial institutions, the UN Environment Programme and 11 major banks have announced a partnership toward assessing and reporting on climate risks in their portfolios.
G20 Taskforce Pressures Companies to Disclose Climate Risk

July 12, 2017

The Group of 20 (G20) Financial Stability Board’s taskforce on climate-related financial disclosures has released a report calling on large corporations and investment firms to comply with extensive disclosure guidelines on “climate risk,” or face potential backlash from investors and ratings agencies.
EU Commission Releases BHR Reporting Guidelines

July 12, 2017

Paul Davies and Michael Green of Latham & Watkins analyze European Commission guidelines proposing best practices for companies reporting their non-financial information, including their contributions to the global business and human rights (BHR) agenda, as required by EU law, and suggesting areas for further reporting, such as on "board diversity," that goes beyond EU requirements.
Dutch Bill Pushes Companies on Global Labor Standards

July 10, 2017

As part of the global movement toward requiring corporations to contribute to the realization of the business and human rights (BHR) agenda, a paper by activist group MVO Platform describes a bill that has passed the Dutch Parliament's lower house requiring companies to issue a statement confirming their performance of "due diligence" in reducing child labor in their supply chains.
NGO Calls for Expanded Access to Corporate Information

June 22, 2017

In the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre's latest Corporate Legal Accountability Bulletin, the think tank calls for worldwide adoption of national legislation that would force companies to share internal information with alleged victims of human rights abuses to help them provide a basis for lawsuits against these businesses.
Oxfam Criticizes US on Corporate Tax Policies

June 20, 2017

A press release from activist organization Oxfam illustrates efforts by the UN and nongovernmental organizations to pay for the realization of their "economic, social, and cultural rights" agenda by calling for US laws forcing corporations to pay their "fair share" of taxes and demanding broad financial disclosure rules for businesses.
French Court Approves Law on Corporate "Vigilance" Plans

June 19, 2017

An article by Charles Dauthier and Sabine Smith-Vidal of Morgan Lewis describes the provisions of a French law that recently entered into force following review by the country's Constitutional Court imposing liability on French companies that fail to develop a proper "vigilance" plan to investigate their impacts on human rights and the environment.