UN-ESG

UN Platforms Push Businesses to Adopt “Green” Agenda

July 25, 2019

The UN Environment Programme and its partners are pushing businesses to ensure their operations comply with the UN’s environmental agenda by launching a Green Industry Platform and Green Finance Platform that will serve as hubs for data and guidance on environmentally friendly corporate standards and finance.
Paper Seeks Pressure on Small Businesses for “Sustainability”

July 25, 2019

Sarah Burch of the Centre for International Governance Innovation has published a paper calling for the Canadian government to put pressure on small businesses to “foster sustainability” in their operations to help achieve the goals of the UN’s Paris climate accord.
NGOs Publish Draft US Legislation Requiring Rights Reporting

July 24, 2019

A coalition of nongovernmental organizations has published a discussion draft of US legislation that would require companies to perform an annual assessment of the human rights impacts of their operations and supply chains and report the results to the Securities and Exchange Commission.
US Senate Bill Demands Corporate Climate Reporting

July 24, 2019

CNBC reports that US Senator Elizabeth Warren has reintroduced a bill that would require every public US company to report to the Securities and Exchange Commission on its exposure to the negative impacts of global warming.
NGO Study Examines Compliance with French “Duty of Vigilance”

July 24, 2019

The French organization Businesses for Human Rights has published a wide-ranging study that provides a broad overview of efforts by French corporations to comply with the country’s “duty of vigilance” law requiring them to report how they are addressing alleged human rights violations in their supply chains.
Article Seeks Mandatory Corporate Due Diligence in Australia

July 24, 2019

An academic and a researcher from a human rights NGO have published an article characterizing an Australian law requiring companies to report how they are addressing forced labor in their supply chains as “a step in the right direction” toward mandatory human rights due diligence regimes for businesses.
NGO Seeks German “Due Diligence” Law on Supply Chains

July 24, 2019

Citing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch has called on the German government to put in place a monitoring mechanism that would pressure companies to perform “due diligence” in addressing alleged rights violations in their supply chains.
GRI, CDP Push for Corporate Reporting on UN Climate Goals

July 24, 2019

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and climate reporting nonprofit CDP have published recommendations pressing businesses to align their corporate reporting practices with the pledges their governments made to reduce greenhouse gas emissions under the UN’s Paris climate accord.
UN Agency Forms Alliance on Methane Emissions

July 24, 2019

The UN Environment Programme recently announced that it is forming a Global Methane Alliance to pressure oil and gas companies around the world to focus on reducing methane emissions as a major culprit in the catastrophic impacts of global warming.
UN Posts Green Climate Fund Resource on Data Portal

July 23, 2019

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change has posted a Green Climate Fund Data module to its online portal that allows observers to track “climate finance” efforts, seeking to create a “one-stop open data source” for users to learn how the UN fund funnels global financing into achieving the Paris climate deal.