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 />
10 th Anniversary<br />
COP<br />
January: Advisory Group says companies<br />
should publish examples in annual reports<br />
– a shift in approach that leads to full COP<br />
concept<br />
Human Rights<br />
April: NGOs increase pressure on human<br />
rights and UN internalization processes<br />
Partnership<br />
May: <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> policy dialogue on<br />
HIV/AIDS<br />
Local Networks<br />
June: ALNF in Berne says <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong><br />
needs to create guidance<br />
Financial Markets<br />
October: <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> opens Nasdaq<br />
The official G8 Declaration issued at the G8 Summit in Evian-les-<br />
Bains, France, in June for the first time expresses support for<br />
the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>.<br />
2003<br />
In January 2003, the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> Advisory Council met in New York for its third meeting.<br />
At the meeting, Council members recommended that companies – in order to increase<br />
transparency and accountability – should publish implementation examples as part of their<br />
annual reports. This recommendation marked a significant shift in the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>’s<br />
strategic approach, which would eventually lead to the introduction of the Communication<br />
on Progress in 2005. In April 2003, the leaders of several global NGOs, including Amnesty<br />
<strong>International</strong> and Oxfam, wrote an open letter to then-Deputy Secretary-General Louise<br />
Fréchette, calling for “tangible evidence of progress arising from the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>.” Echoing<br />
concerns raised by many civil society stakeholders during the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>’s early<br />
years, the group urged strengthening the initiative’s accountability and proposed a number<br />
of measures, such as stricter monitoring of the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>’s reporting requirement, as<br />
well as a mechanism to address perceived violations of the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> Principles by<br />
corporate participants.<br />
Also in May 2003, G8 finance ministers for the first time expressed support for the <strong>Global</strong><br />
<strong>Compact</strong>. In a joint statement, the ministers encouraged “voluntary private sector initiatives<br />
that foster and complement such international efforts to promote corporate social and environmental<br />
responsibility as the OECD guidelines for Multinational Enterprises and the UN <strong>Global</strong><br />
<strong>Compact</strong> Principles.” This support of the <strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong>’s role was further reiterated in the<br />
official G8 Declaration issued at the G8 Summit in Evian-les-Bains (France) in June 2003.<br />
<strong>Global</strong> <strong>Compact</strong> <strong>International</strong> <strong>Yearbook</strong> <strong>2010</strong> 27
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