Business & Human Rights: Environment

{···español} Retos y oportunidades ambientales en el dinámico mercado de electricidad de América del Norte (Comisión para la Cooperación Ambiental de América del Norte, 17 junio 2002)

{···français} Les possibilités et les défis environnementaux liés au marché nord-américain de l’électricité en évolution (Commission de coopération environnementale de l’Amérique du Nord, 17 juin 2002)

Government comments on Environmental Challenges and Opportunities of the Evolving North American Electricity Market (North American Commission for Environmental Cooperation, 17 June 2002)

{···español} Comentarios recibidos de los gobiernos sobre Retos y oportunidades ambientales en el dinámico mercado de electricidad de América del Norte (Comisión para la Cooperación Ambiental de América del Norte, 17 junio 2002)

{···français} Commentaires des gouvernements sur le rapport intitulé «Les possibilités et les défis environnementaux liés au marché nord-américain de l’électricité» (Commission de coopération environnementale de l’Amérique du Nord, 17 juin 2002)

World earth summit all set for major flop - The "Earth Summit" in South Africa in August is shaping up to be a major flop with politics in the driving seat and science hardly to be seen, scientists and environmentalists say. (Jeremy Lovell, Reuters, 17 June 2002)

Water, water everywhere, but...[Brazil] - The shortage of fresh water in the developing world is reaching critical levels. And a new dam in Brazil only serves to highlight the environmental problem...In many respects, the Castanhão dam exemplifies how a dam should be built. It involved detailed planning, and extensive consultation with the people whose homes in the nearby city of Jaguaribara were to be flooded. The planning also involved an assessment of the dam's environmental impact...As important as dams have been in the past, planners and politicians are now having to think of other ways to meet the problem of water shortages. (Steve Connor, Independent [UK], 17 June 2002)

BRAZIL: Johannesburg Summit May Look To Dam, Newspaper Reports - The London Independent reported this week on Brazil's Castanhao Dam project, which it called a "testament to the growing worldwide crisis in the supply of freshwater" as identified by the U.N. Environment Program. (UN Wire, 19 June 2002)

U.S. firms face suits for overseas acts: New twist on anti-pirate law blurs borders, extends liability ...Some suits charge companies with polluting foreign lands, others with violating human rights [refers to lawsuits in U.S. courts against Unocal, ChevronTexaco, Gap, Levi Strauss] (David R. Baker, San Francisco Chronicle, 15 June 2002)

Rio + 10 Series: A Brief History of the Earth Summits--From Rio to Johannesburg (William Baue, SocialFunds.com, 14 June 2002)

International Aid & Trade New York 2002 - Trade and Development: Building Capacity for Sustainable Markets - June 19-20, 2002 - New York - [conference for those involved in provision of international humanitarian aid] This year the event is focused on Sustainable Procurement through Environmentally and Socially Responsible Procurement (ESRP)...The conference is supported by the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). The exhibition features companies that work with multilateral organisations, including the UN, IFIs, the Red Cross and various NGOs, which will reflect the conference theme by showcasing goods and services from commercial concerns that incorporate social and environmental considerations into the formation of their services and product solutions. (International Aid & Trade, 14 June 2002)

US to relax air pollution rules for utilities - The Bush administration yesterday said it will relax costly air pollution rules when US utilities are repaired or expanded, triggering a storm of protest from environmental groups and some Democrats. (Chris Baltimore, Reuters, 14 June 2002)

NY to sue Bush Administration over utility rules - New York State's attorney general said he would the sue the Bush Administration over the US Environmental Protection Agency's decision yesterday to ease rules that now limit air pollution by coal-burning utilities....New York State, along with other Northeast states, in the past has sued Midwest and Canadian utilities, charging that smog and acid rain they produce has turned Adirondack lakes acidic, killed forests, and caused respiratory diseases. (Reuters, 14 June 2002)

Details of US utility pollution rule changes - The Bush administration yesterday eased anti-pollution rules for US utilities, oil refineries and industrial plants undergoing repairs or expansion. (Reuters, 14 June 2002)

Comment: Simon Zadek's column, June 2002 - Simon Zadek reports on the latest developments of assurance frameworks for companies looking to improve social and environmental performance [refers to AA1000S Assurance Standard] (Simon Zadek, Chief Executive of AccountAbility, in Ethical Corporation Magazine, 13 June 2002)

Revealed: how the smoke stacks of America have brought the world's worst drought to Africa -...new research indicates that pollution from factories and power stations, especially in North America and Europe, has exacerbated drought in countries south of the Sahara (Charles Arthur, Independent [UK], 13 June 2002)

Brazil Amazon destruction down but still alarming -...Freitas [Analuce Freitas, coordinator of public environmental policies at the World Wildlife Fund in Brazil] said the only way to cut deforestation rates is to overhaul government development policies for the Amazon so all projects include environmental considerations. (Axel Bugge, Reuters, 13 June 2002)

Sierra Club presses US Big Three on fuel economy - A leading US environmental group launched what it described as a major campaign yesterday to force Detroit's Big Three automakers, and Ford Motor Co., in particular, to boost the fuel efficiency of their cars and trucks. (Tom Brown, Reuters, 13 June 2002)

New bill calls for corporate responsibility [UK] - A broad coalition of human rights, environment and development organisations today launched a private members Bill to demand greater social and environmental accountability from business. The bill is being tabled by Linda Perham, MP, and is backed by Amnesty International (UK), Friends of the Earth, the New Economics Foundation, Save the Children (UK) and CAFOD. The legislation has been drafted as a response to the failure of the voluntary approach to corporate responsibility (Friends of the Earth, 12 June 2002)

MP leads call for corporate ethics bill [UK] - It calls for social, financial and environmental reporting to be made mandatory, requires companies to consult on big projects and demands rights of redress for citizens negatively impacted by business activities. (Terry Macalister, Guardian [UK], 13 June 2002)

Domini Social Investments Reports Record Shareholder Votes for 2002 Proxy Season - Socially Responsible Firm Says Post-Enron "Crisis of Confidence" Fueled Shareholder Discontent with Corporate Social and Environmental Performance [includes reference to Household International, Cooper Industries, Gap, Walt Disney Co., McDonald's, Nordstrom, Sears Roebuck, Coca-Cola, Pepsi] (Domini Social Investments, 12 June 2002)

GM, IBM, Kinko’s Announce Green Power Initiatives - General Motors Corporation, IBM, Johnson & Johnson, and Kinko's, Inc. have announced renewable-energy projects as part of the Green Power Market Development Group, a commercial and industrial partnership dedicated to building corporate markets for green power...The Green Power Market Development Group was launched by World Resources Institute and Business for Social Responsibility in August 2000. (GreenBiz.com, 11 June 2002)

HK to set up sustainable development council - Tsang - Struggling with worsening pollution, Hong Kong will set up an advisory body to map out how to push ahead with economic development without destroying the environment...But green groups have slammed the move. (Reuters, 11 June 2002)

Cleaner off-road diesel vehicles may save 8,500 lives [USA] - report - The Bush administration should adopt tough federal pollution emission standards for bulldozers, farm tractors and other off-road diesel vehicles to prevent 8,500 premature deaths and 180,000 asthma attacks each year, state and local environmental regulators said in a report released yesterday. (Tom Doggett, Reuters, 11 June 2002)

Book Review: Cradle to Cradle - William McDonough and Michael Braungart propose a paradigm shift for how the world views product lifespans, moving from a "cradle-to-grave" mentality where products die in a landfill to a "cradle-to-cradle" mentality where they continue to feed production. (William Baue, SocialFunds.com, 11 June 2002)

World Bank inspectors attack Uganda dam - A controversial hydro-electric dam in Uganda backed by the World Bank [proposed Bujagali dam, to be built by U.S. company AES] could damage the environment and lead to unfeasibly high electricity prices, according to the bank's own inspectors. (Alan Beattie, Financial Times, 11 June 2002)

Oil refiners can make "clean" hydrogen too - Shell - Oil companies can wrest the initiative from the green lobby by making the clean fuels of the future from their own refineries, but they will need to act quickly if they are to stay ahead of the game, a Shell executive said last week. (Sujata Rao, Reuters, 10 June 2002)

Rio + 10 Series: A Brief History of the Earth Summits--From Stockholm to Rio (William Baue, SocialFunds.com, 7 June 2002)

Canada firm says disputed Peru mine could help poor - Canadian miner Manhattan Minerals Corp this week brushed aside fierce criticism of its proposed Tambogrande gold and copper mine, calling the $315 million project a lucrative opportunity that farmers in a poor northern valley could not afford to pass up. (Missy Ryan, Reuters, 7 June 2002)

Costa Rica bans open pit mining - Costa Rican President Abel Pacheco signed a decree this week banning open pit mining in a move expected to hit the mining and exploration plans of at least two Canadian firms [Vannessa Ventures Ltd and Wheaton River Minerals Ltd.] (Reuters, 7 June 2002)

US lawmakers want Mexico power plants to cut pollution - U.S. legislation would block Mexican power plants located near the California border from using natural gas from the United States as fuel unless the facilities complied with the state's clean air laws. (Tom Doggett, Reuters, 7 June 2002)

Scientists Say Metals May Be 'New Renewables' - At the Green Processing 2002 Conference recently held in Australia, two researchers with Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization touted metals as promising contributors to sustainable development – because they have a virtually unlimited lifespan and can be recycled almost without limit. (GreenBiz.com, 6 June 2002)

Alaska fines BP $300,000 over pipeline leak systems [USA] - The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation fined BP's Alaska unit $300,000 for inadequate detection of spills from major pipelines carrying crude oil from the Prudhoe Bay field (Yereth Rosen, Reuters, 6 June 2002)

Guangdong governor says pollution plan in place [China] - The Chinese province of Guangdong says it has a full plan to tackle its serious environmental pollution [refers to curbs on cement & brick factories, automobiles, pig farms] (Eric Hall, Reuters, 6 June 2002)

Business says states not living up to Rio promise - Multinational companies and local communities have done much more than governments to promote sustainable development during the past 10 years, the head of a corporate lobby [Bjorn Stigson, the president of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development] said yesterday...In particular, he criticised the United States (Reuters, 5 June 2002)

Bush - Global climate report is bureaucratic hot air [USA] - President George W. Bush yesterday called a recent report that blames humans for global warming nothing more than a product of government "bureaucracy" and said he would not accept an international accord to reduce heating-trapping emissions. The report by the Environmental Protection Agency, whose top officials are appointed by the president, appeared to back the view of many scientists who believe that global warming is primarily caused by emissions from automobiles, power plants, and oil refineries. (Tom Doggett, Reuters, 5 June 2002)

Government to review Rio Australia uranium mine [Australia] -...Government authorities in Australia yesterday said they will launch an environmental review into the Ranger uranium mine owned by Rio Tinto Plc/Ltd...The review follows concerns among environmentalists over elevated uranium levels in water run-off earlier this year. (Reuters, 5 June 2002)

Critics slam Japan's lethargy on gas emission cuts -...One of Japan's top business group, the Federation of Economic Organisations (Keidanren), now part of the Japan Business Federation after a recent merger, set up an action programme to encourage industry to reduce emissions, but it was voluntary. (Miho Yoshikawa, Reuters, 5 June 2002)

EPA in first steps on ethanol emissions [USA] - Environmental Protecton Agency officials suggested measures this week to reduce toxic byproducts from ethanol plants after presenting evidence that many of the plants may be creating hazardous environmental pollutants. (Eric Noe, Reuters, 5 June 2002)

Human rights and the environment in the Americas - Resolution 1896 (adopted by Organization of American States General Assembly, 4 June 2002)

{···español} Derechos humanos y medio ambiente en las Américas - Resolución 1896 (Organización de los Estados Americanos, 4 junio 2002)

"No Tears for the WSSD" - Statement of the participants of the International Mining Workshop, Bali, 4 June 2002 - We, the people from mining affected communities, environmentalists and sustainable development advocates, strongly condemn the current Fourth Preparatory Committee Meeting for World Summit for Sustainable Development (Prepcom IV -WSSD). Human rights and ecological justice cannot be priorities in a conference sponsored by transnational corporations (TNCs), most of which are the worst polluters on the planet. (Indonesian People's Forum, 4 June 2002)

Peruvian farmers vote against gold mine - Citizens of the Peruvian municipality of Tambogrande stated loud and clear in Sunday's referendum that they do not want the gold under their village to be mined [proposed mine by Manhattan Minerals] (Friends of the Earth, 4 June 2002)

Labor Board Issues Complaint Against Continental Carbon Company on Behalf of PACE Locals in Oklahoma and Texas [USA] - The National Labor Relations Board regional office in Fort Worth, Texas, issued a consolidated complaint against Continental Carbon Company for two different unfair labor practice charges [threatening employees with arrest while engaged in legally protected activities, and refusal to hand over safety & health information about leaks and possible well contamination] (PACE International Union, 4 June 2002)

Peru mining vote "suspicious" - Manhattan Minerals - Canadian miner Manhattan Minerals Corp. yesterday slammed as "suspicious" a weekend vote in which residents of the Tambogrande valley in northern Peru voted overwhelmingly to reject a planned $315 million gold and copper mine...98.65 percent of residents voted against the controversial mining project in a nonbinding referendum organized by the local municipal government. (Reuters, 4 June 2002)

{···español} 98,6% de votantes se manifiestan contra explotación minera de Manhattan [Perú]: Tambogrande dio lección democrática en consulta vecinal (Marilú Ruiz y Juan Cabrejos, Diario La República [Perú], 3 junio 2002)

Mine Prospect Looms Over Northern Peruvian Farmers - The Tambogrande district in northern Peru has become the focus of an international controversy over whether a high-grade mineral deposit underneath the town can be developed into a gold, copper, zinc mine without causing harm to the environment and a fertile agricultural valley where lemons, mangoes and papayas are grown for export. (Mary Powers, Environment News Service, 28 May 2002)

Electronics and Appliances Sector Rated Highly for Environmental Performance: German research firm also finds, however, that there is much room for improvement in the sector's social performance -...This most recent report evaluates the world's top 16 manufacturers of office electronic equipment and domestic appliances...The Oekom study revealed the sector's dismal record for employing women in management positions, especially at Japanese firms. Sharp and Toshiba...have a mere 0.5 percent of their top executive positions filled by women. Oekom compares this to Xerox, the U.S.-based rival that employs 31 percent women in the upper echelon of its management. (William Baue, SocialFunds.com, 4 June 2002)

Nippon Mining, Codelco set up firm for bio-mining - Japan's biggest copper producer, Nippon Mining and Metals Co Ltd , said yesterday it had reached an agreement with Chile's state-owned Codelco to set-up a firm to develop biotechnology for mining copper. Nippon Mining said the firms believed that biotechnology was important for future sustainability and reducing costs in the mining industry. (Reuters, 4 June 2002)

Trade, Environment & Development Series Premieres: Top Experts Clarify, Propose Workable Solutions to Trade Issues - Attempting to break through the logjam of polarized debate over the nature, impact, and future of global trade, the Carnegie Endowment premieres the first policy brief in its Trade, Environment, and Development series. (Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 3 June 2002)

Doha: Is It Really a Development Round? (Kamal Malhotra, Senior Civil Society Advisor at UNDP; Trade Environment, & Development Series; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, May 2002)

Air Pollution Boosts Cancer Risk for Americans [USA] - Breathing toxic chemicals in the outdoor air exposes all Americans to a lifetime cancer risk at least 10 times greater than the level considered acceptable under federal law, shows new data released by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. (Environment News Service, 3 June 2002)

CLIMATE CHANGE: In Report To U.N., U.S. Says Problem Is Man-Made (UN Wire, 3 June 2002)

full report: Climate Action Report 2002: The United States of America's Third National Communication Under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (U.S. Dept. of State, May 2002)

Climate Changing, U.S. Says in Report (Andrew C. Revkin, New York Times, 3 June 2002)

Crossroads on Global Warming -...President Bush has no serious strategies for climate change. (editorial, New York Times, 3 June 2002)

Peru town votes on mine plan amid pollution fears - Some 36,000 Peruvians in the northern town of Tambogrande are set to vote yesterday in a local referendum on whether to keep the status quo in their quiet farming community or embrace big mining with a copper and gold mine which some fear could ruin their livelihood [proposed project by Canadian mining firm Manhattan Minerals] (Eduardo Orozco, Reuters, 3 June 2002)

EU ratifies global warming pact, slams Washington (Irwin Arieff, Reuters, 3 June 2002)

Green groups push US to act on ozone problem - Ten U.S. health and environmental groups on Thursday accused the Environmental Protection Agency of "foot dragging" and threatened to sue the agency to begin enforcing a 1997 law designed to curb ozone...The stricter ozone rules are opposed by large industries including truckers and power generators. (Christopher Doering, Reuters, 3 June 2002)

Health - Pesticides - EPA [U.S. Environmental Protection Agency] torn on how to regulate herbicide: Chemical linked to cancer, deformities - Atrazine's major manufacturer, Syngenta AG of Switzerland, says it will offer studies of its own to refute the frog research. (John H. Cushman Jr., New York Times, in San Francisco Chronicle, 2 June 2002)

UNEP Urges Progress In Tourism Sector And Launches New Industry Sector Reports On Sustainability Performance - The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) today urged the travel and tourism sector to apply the principles of sustainability to all aspects of its business operations. (U.N. Environment Programme, 2 June 2002)

Ten Planet Trashers: Why corporate accountability matters -...Friends of the Earth today publishes details of “Ten Planet Trashers”, companies whose behaviour since Rio shows the need for binding rules on corporate behaviour. [the 10 companies: Exxon Mobil (Esso), AMEC, Premier Oil, ICI, Scotts, Barclays, Associated Octel, Aventis/Bayer, BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels), Associated British Ports] (Friends of the Earth, 1 June 2002)

company websites:
- ExxonMobil (Esso)
- AMEC
- Premier Oil
- ICI
- Scotts
- Barclays Group
- Octel Corp.
- Aventis / Bayer Group
- BNFL (British Nuclear Fuels)
- Associated British Ports

Rio + 10 Series -...Entitled the “Rio + 10” articles, the stories include overviews of the previous two Earth Summits, analysis of how the private sector is both facilitating and hampering sustainable development, and reviews of relevant publications. (SocialFunds.com, June-Sep. 2002)

UN - sustainability -...fears are growing that the summit [World Summit on Sustainable Develoment] will be seized as an opportunity to further push the corporate-led globalisation agenda, with genuine environmental and social concerns being sidelined as governments push their own vested interests – and those of the rash of corporations and corporate lobby groups attending the summit. (Corporate Watch [UK] Newsletter, June-July 2002)

BASDards at the World Summit on Sustainable Development - Business Action for Sustainable Development (BASD) is the distasteful lovechild spawned from an unholy union between the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC – the world’s premier business lobby group) and the benign sounding, but very dangerous, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD – otherwise known as Greenwash International). The initiative was launched in April 2001, with the expressed intention of ‘rallying the collective forces of world business in the lead up to next year’s Earth Summit.’ It is aptly headed by Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, retired chairman of those arch-deacons of global greenwash Shell. (Corporate Watch [UK] Newsletter, June-July 2002)

Global Compact Business Guide for Conflict Impact Assessment and Risk Management [includes sections on impact assessments for: human rights, humanitarian law, labour, environment] (U.N. Global Compact, June 2002)

Forests, People and Rights [Indonesia] - A special report by Down to Earth International Campaign for Ecological Justice in Indonesia (Liz Chidley, Down to Earth, June 2002)