ESG

Stock Exchange Initiative Pushes Gender Reporting

March 23, 2017

The Sustainable Stock Exchanges initiative, which pressures stock exchanges around the world to contribute to the fulfillment of the UN's "sustainable development" agenda, has published a report calling on exchanges to do more to push listed companies to advance women's "economic empowerment," particularly by imposing new reporting requirements on these businesses.
Insurer Warns of Assets "Stranded" by Climate Change

March 17, 2017

The insurance company Lloyd’s of London has published a report in cooperation with researchers at the University of Oxford arguing that insurers must consider divesting from assets that will become "stranded" by government policies responding to global warming and calling for companies to participate in the development of climate policies and regulations.
SEC Reconsiders Implementation of Minerals Rule

March 15, 2017

The Acting Chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Michael Piwowar has announced that the SEC is reconsidering the implementation of a "misguided" corporate disclosure rule for the use of "conflict minerals" from war-torn areas of Africa, given the resulting boycott of some African minerals and costs imposed on legitimate mining operations.
Investors Call for G20 Phaseout of Carbon Funding

March 01, 2017

Demonstrating the expanding reach of the global climate change and sustainable development agendas, institutional investors and insurers have published a letter to the G20 group of countries calling on them to "accelerate green investment" and completely phase out fossil fuel subsidies by the year 2020.
NGO Praises French Corporate Reporting Regime

March 01, 2017

The European Coalition for Corporate Justice has praised a recently passed French law requiring large companies to disclose, on an annual basis, their efforts to address human rights impacts in their operations and those of their subsidiaries and calls for the creation of similar but stronger corporate reporting regime at the regional and global level.
NGO Pushes Canadian Corporate Reporting Law

March 01, 2017

Citing multiple examples of mandatory reporting laws from the US, UK, and France, a report from the Shareholder Association for Research & Education calls for Canada to adopt a similar mandatory regime requiring that corporations report to their investors information about labor rights risks in their global supply chains.
Agricultural Lenders Adopt ESG Principles

March 01, 2017

Members of the Council on Smallholder Agricultural Finance, an alliance of agricultural lending institutions, has adopted a set of "environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles" to promote "socially and environmentally responsible" lending to agricultural projects in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
Australia Reviews Corporate Reporting on Forced Labor

February 28, 2017

A subcommittee of the Australian Parliament has announced that it is beginning an inquiry into whether the country should pursue legislation, similar to the UK's Modern Slavery Act, imposing requirements on businesses to disclose their efforts to end forced labor in their global supply chains.
Companies Tout Contributions to SDGs

February 27, 2017

The "business intelligence" entity Ethical Corporation has produced a publication containing interviews with representatives of various multinational corporations on how they have implemented provisions of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a comprehensive list of targets for the social and environmental agenda, in their global operations.
Companies Plan Continued Reporting on Foreign Operations

February 21, 2017

Reuters reports that, at a mining conference in Cape Town, corporate leaders asserted that extractives companies will continue to respond to global pressure, from actors ranging from UN officials to human rights activists, to disclose details of their foreign operations despite recent US actions against mandatory reporting of foreign payments and mineral sourcing.