UN-ESG

Investors Support Swiss Corporate “Due Diligence” Legislation

June 12, 2019

The Ethos Foundation, an organization seeking to support “socially responsible investment,” and a group of institutional investors have called on the lower house of the Swiss Parliament to support legislation imposing “mandatory human rights due diligence” obligations on Swiss businesses.
South Africa Introduces Carbon Tax to Meet UN Climate Pledges

June 05, 2019

The saga of South Africa’s attempt to introduce a tax on greenhouse gas emissions, ultimately enacted at the end of May to help the country meet its pledges under the UN’s Paris climate deal, highlights producer concerns about the impacts of such taxes on energy prices.
UK Body Seeks Enforcement Mechanism for Labor Reporting Act

June 03, 2019

Lawmakers appointed by the UK government to provide an independent review of the country’s Modern Slavery Act have published a report calling, among other proposals, for a mandatory structure regarding corporate reporting on their efforts against forced labor and the enforcement of sanctions against companies that fail to comply.
UN Body Updates Emissions Standards for Shipping Industry

June 03, 2019

At meetings in May, the Marine Environment Protection Committee of the UN’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) adopted a series of measures aimed at increasing the energy efficiency of ships and reducing the maritime industry’s greenhouse gas emissions in line with the UN’s Paris climate accord.
French Officials Propose Audits for Online “Hate Speech” Removal

June 03, 2019

Politico reports that the French government has released a proposal to install regulators who could perform regular audits of social media companies’ removal of “hate speech” from their platforms and to force such businesses to publicize their internal processes for dealing with such content.
NGOs Push for Bolstered Rights Reporting by ASEAN Companies

June 03, 2019

A group of nongovernmental organizations recently published a report finding that human rights reporting by major companies listed on stock exchanges in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) “falls substantially short” of UN standards and urges such companies to prepare for a legally binding treaty on business and human rights.
Activists Criticize Microsoft’s Move to “Climate Leadership” Group

May 31, 2019

Environmental activists are criticizing tech giant Microsoft’s decision to join the international policy institute Climate Leadership Council due to the group’s advocacy of business legal immunity for contributions to climate change in exchange for support of a rising tax on carbon emissions.
German Officials Propose Corporate “Due Diligence” Law

May 31, 2019

Lawyers at the global law firm Littler Mendelson examine a proposal from the German government to require German companies to perform “due diligence” in examining the human rights and environmental impacts of their operations and those of businesses in their global supply chains.
Activists Release “Transparency Index” for Fashion Industry

May 31, 2019

The “global movement” Fashion Revolution has published a 2019 Fashion Transparency Index targeting companies it says do not share sufficient information with nongovernmental organizations that wish to scrutinize the human rights and environmental impacts of their supply chains.
ISO Highlights Standards’ Pressure for Climate Action

May 30, 2019

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) recently published a press release on how two of its standards contribute to the fulfillment of the UN’s Paris climate agenda by seeking to harmonize how businesses and other organizations track and report their reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.