UN-ESG

Article Seeks Rights-Oriented Reform of NetzDG

April 20, 2018

Ben Wagner of the Centre for the Internet and Human Rights argues that the German legislators should reform the so-called NetzDG law, which fines social media companies that fail to remove "hate speech" from their platforms, by placing more responsibility for content removal in the hands of independent regulators and setting standards for public reporting of hate-speech removal.
World Bank Funds Extractives Transparency Project

April 17, 2018

The World Bank has outlined its broad financial support for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), a group that promotes public reporting by oil, gas, and mining companies and governments of the countries in which they operate on finances and governance, as part of the wider agenda of requiring corporate transparency on an array of social and environmental issues.
NGO Rates Corporate Embrace of "Sustainability" Agenda

April 16, 2018

Environmental activist organization Ceres has published a report on its Roadmap for Sustainability assessing how over 600 US companies are positioned in achieving a set of global standards requiring the embrace of environmental and human rights goals in their operations and supply chains.
HRW Pushes for Public Reporting on Jewelry Sourcing

April 09, 2018

The nongovernmental organization Human Rights Watch is encouraging jewelry firms to embrace the global business and human rights agenda in their sourcing of various minerals by mapping their full supply chains, performing broad human rights impact assessments, and increasing public reporting on their efforts to rid their supply chains of human rights abuses.
GRI: Corporate Reporting Contributes to Gender Equality

March 30, 2018

A press release from the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) explains how companies can use its reporting standards on topics related to the international "sustainability" agenda to demonstrate to the public how their corporate employment and other policies contribute to gender equality.
GRI Launches Registration System for Corporate Reporting

March 30, 2018

As the organization seeks to further standardize the worldwide use of its corporate reporting standards, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has launched a Standards Report Registration System permitting companies to notify GRI of the use of its standards and prove to others that they have issued their reports in compliance with GRI rules.
EU Ministers Advance Reporting Mandates for Tax Planners

March 30, 2018

EU economic and financial affairs ministers have reached a deal on new rules requiring financial intermediaries, such as accountants and tax planners, to report to tax authorities "complex cross-border financial schemes" they have constructed to help lower their clients' tax bills, and establishing a central EU database containing information on these structures.
EC Sets out "Sustainable Finance" Action Plan

March 29, 2018

The European Commission (EC) has produced an action plan describing how it will encourage the alignment of the EU finance sector with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including by pushing for recognition of a "duty" of investors to take the SDGs into account in their investment decisions and for corporate reporting on "sustainability" issues.
GRI Presses Companies on Gender Reporting

March 23, 2018

Marking International Women's Day, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) issued a press release calling on companies to include in reporting on their implementation of the "sustainability" agenda the ways in which they are addressing gender inequality and identifying gender parity in business as a major factor in achieving the global Sustainable Development Goals.
UN Launches Pilot Project on Climate Reporting in Finance

March 21, 2018

UN Environment has partnered with nine institutional investors to pilot the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s (FSB) Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures to pave the way for expansive public reporting on investors' exposure to the catastrophic risks of climate change across the finance industry.