NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has rallied corporate leaders and entrepreneurs gathered for a summit in New York to focus on key areas required to reach a new era of sustainability, including responsible practices, transformative partnerships, breakthrough innovation and targeted investments.
In his remarks to the 2016 UN Global Compact Leaders’ Summit, he stressed that achieving the aims of the 2030 agenda for sustainable development would require finding new ways of living that would end the suffering, discrimination and lack of opportunity for billions of people around the world. As such, he called on all stakeholders from world leaders and chief executives, to educators and philanthropists, and across all sectors and industries to work together in broader and deeper partnerships.
The UN Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative, supports companies to do business responsibly by aligning their strategies and operations with ten principles on human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption; and to take strategic actions to advance broader societal goals, such as the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) with an emphasis on collaboration and innovation.
The summit, which ends tonight, aims to jump-start business action everywhere on the goals. To that end, the Global Compact unveiled a multi-year strategy to drive business awareness and activity that supports the achievement of the Goals by 2030. Key elements of the new ‘Making Global Goals Local Business’ strategy include an annual Leaders Summit, the SDG Pioneers programme, Local Network SDG Action Plans, UN-business partnerships, and impact reporting.
Recalling the adoption last year of both the SDGs and the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Secretary-General said that sustainable development could be separated from fighting the impacts of climate change, and called for a holistic development model will take climate impact and fragile ecosystems into account, and would benefit both people and the planet. Noting that trillions of dollars will be invested in infrastructure in the coming years, he said that the Paris Agreement and the SDGs give the private sector an unprecedented opportunity to create clean-energy, climate-resilient, sustainable economies.
The Secretary-General said that we are at a decisive moment in the shift to sustainable and inclusive markets and the first step in this regard would be to mobilize the global business community as never before. All businesses, everywhere, can and should play a role in improving our world and that starts with integrity doing business right, he said.
I have seen first-hand the power of the UN Global Compact’s Ten Principles They are helping thousands of companies contribute to sustainability, he said asking each of the corporate leaders and entrepreneurs participating in the Summit to renew commitment to principled business, and to speak up for the UN Global Compact.
Next, he said innovation will be crucial. I urge you to take advantage of the new markets and solutions that are emerging; to set corporate goals inspired by the SDGs; and to let sustainability drive innovation and investment, he stressed. The UN Global Compact is uniquely prepared and positioned to lead business in the SDG era, said Mr. Ban. Achieving the SDGs will require unprecedented cooperation, radical innovation and extraordinary leadership. And it will require us each to be a pioneer, forging ahead into new territory.
That would mean, the UN chief continued, taking personal and corporate responsibility for how we do business and who we choose as our staff and partners. It means taking stock of our decisions as consumers and investors. It means raising our voices and taking a stand when it matters. The United Nations Global Compact is the forum to make all this happen.
UN Global Compact executive director Lise Kingo attends the summit. She said that the summit was the first step on a long-term journey to engage business on the 2030 Agenda. The expectations on business in the new SDG era are enormous.
