Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010
A profound retrospective of the first decade of the UN Global Compact, challenges in the light of the year of biodiversity, and instruments for an adequate Corporate Citizenship are some of the issues highlighted in the new 2010 edition of the “Global Compact International Yearbook”. Among this years prominent authors are Ban Ki-moon, Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer and Achim Steiner. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “As the Global Compact enters its second decade, it is my hope that this Yearbook will be an inspiration to bring responsible business to true scale.” Formally presented during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the yearbook is now for sale. Looking back at the past ten years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conservation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the globe. Chapter two deals with Biodiversity: UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner emphasizes the importance of protecting the nature: “Climate change has been described as the biggest market failure of all time – the loss of biodiversity and nature’s economically-important services must surely be running a close second, if not an equal first. Year in and year out, the world economy may be losing services from forests to freshwaters and from soils to coral reefs, with resulting costs of up to $4.5 trillion or more. Decisive action needs to be taken to reverse these declines or the bill will continue to climb – and with it any hopes of achieving the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals and a sustainable 21st century for six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.” Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adds: “Now is the time for concrete action from the business community to save life on earth. The alternative is an impoverished planet that can no longer support a healthy, vibrant global economy. The stakes in this fight could not be higher. As the slogan of the International Year reminds us, ‘Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.’”
A profound retrospective of the first decade of the UN Global Compact, challenges in the light of the year of biodiversity, and instruments for an adequate Corporate Citizenship are some of the issues highlighted in the new 2010 edition of the “Global Compact International Yearbook”. Among this years prominent authors are Ban Ki-moon, Bill Clinton, Joschka Fischer and Achim Steiner. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said: “As the Global Compact enters its second decade, it is my hope that this Yearbook will be an inspiration to bring responsible business to true scale.” Formally presented during the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit in New York, the yearbook is now for sale. Looking back at the past ten years, the United Nations Global Compact has left its mark in a variety of ways, helping shape the conservation about corporate responsibility and diffusing the concept of a principle-based approach to doing business across the globe.
Chapter two deals with Biodiversity: UNEP Executive Director Achim Steiner emphasizes the importance of protecting the nature: “Climate change has been described as the biggest market failure of all time – the loss of biodiversity and nature’s economically-important services must surely be running a close second, if not an equal first. Year in and year out, the world economy may be losing services from forests to freshwaters and from soils to coral reefs, with resulting costs of up to $4.5 trillion or more. Decisive action needs to be taken to reverse these declines or the bill will continue to climb – and with it any hopes of achieving the poverty-related Millennium Development Goals and a sustainable 21st century for six billion people, rising to nine billion by 2050.” Dr. Ahmed Djoghlaf, Executive Secretary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, adds: “Now is the time for concrete action from the business community to save life on earth. The alternative is an impoverished planet that can no longer support a healthy, vibrant global economy. The stakes in this fight could not be higher. As the slogan of the International Year reminds us, ‘Biodiversity is life. Biodiversity is our life.’”
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Agenda<br />
News Around The World<br />
Human Rights<br />
Collaboration Key to Food Security<br />
Asia & Australia<br />
Middle East and North Africa (MENA) is the region most dependent<br />
on food imports, and this dependence will increase<br />
dramatically over the next decades. Rising food prices in 2008<br />
sent thousands to the streets in protest. So say Adel El Beltagy,<br />
Chair of the <strong>Global</strong> Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR)<br />
and Mahmoud Solh, Director General of the <strong>International</strong><br />
Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA).<br />
For governments in the MENA region, the challenges of population<br />
growth, climate change, impending water poverty, and<br />
desertification pose a significant threat to regional efforts to<br />
reduce poverty and ensure food security for millions, argue<br />
the authors. A promising development is that agricultural<br />
ministers from half a dozen countries in the region, including<br />
Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman, Afghanistan, Tunisia,<br />
Syria, attended the first ever GCARD-conference. Beltagy and<br />
Solh write in the <strong>Global</strong> Arabic Network that GCARD brings<br />
together individuals who are generating and using agricultural<br />
knowledge – whether in universities, research centers or<br />
villages – to share ideas and experiences that will inform a<br />
strategy for addressing these challenges. “In some cases, we<br />
may have to re-think and cast aside old approaches to solve<br />
new problems. For example, climate change will affect rainfall<br />
and temperature patterns and have a direct impact on already<br />
scarce water supplies in most countries in the region. Access<br />
to water has a direct impact on access to food. To avert future<br />
food, economic and social crises, we must form a united front<br />
to address water use in agriculture today.”<br />
Environment<br />
India Mounts Solar Offensive<br />
At present, India uses renewable energy sources for only 7.5<br />
percent of its power supply. The Indian government wants<br />
to increase this number significantly, and is relying on solar<br />
energy to do so: solar facilities are to be installed that by 2022<br />
will generate a total of 20 GW. Such a sum is equivalent to<br />
the output of some 13 modern power plants and will make<br />
India a top solar power producer. The government has three<br />
goals with this plan: to secure the energy supply, fight climate<br />
change and become independent from fossil fuels such as coal<br />
and oil. Although India receives more sun than most other<br />
countries, until now the expansion of solar energy collection<br />
has stagnated. The costs were too high: at present the power<br />
from combustible fossil fuels is up to five times cheaper than<br />
solar energy. There were not enough investors, nor was there<br />
sufficient support from the government. This should now be<br />
changing: Union Minister for New and Renewable Energy Dr.<br />
Farooq Abdullah says that “we aim to bring down the cost as<br />
quickly as possible”, thus improving government support and<br />
encouraging development in the industry. With India’s goal<br />
of 100 percent supply density, solar energy also plays a crucial<br />
role in rural areas and elsewhere: some three-quarters of the<br />
population live in villages where only half of all households<br />
are connected to the power grid.<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2010</strong> 183
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