Following up on its January 31 paper on essential elements of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, USCIB is actively working to secure meaningful business input in the development of the SDGs and the UN’s Post-2015 Development Agenda. The SDGs are viewed as the UN’s successor to the Millennium Development Goals agreed in 2000.

The January USCIB paper identified four overarching elements as essential to the business contribution in broad range of proposed SDG themes: good governance, economic growth and empowerment, innovation, and infrastructure. It also called for substantive business engagement to participate in and inform the UN SDG deliberations.

“The U.S. business community has a strong stake in meaningful and practical SDGs,” said USCIB Vice President Norine Kennedy, who spearheads USCIB’s efforts to engage with international institutions as well as our environment and sustainability work. “National implementation and the right conditions in-country are the foundations on which a UN new paradigm for international development should be based. The SDGs will be successfully put into practice in those countries that have institutions and practices in place, and involve their private sector in meaningful ways.”

“Business has a critical role”

Kennedy joined USCIB members Ann Condon (General Electric), who chairs USCIB’s Environment Committee Chair, and Tam Nguyen (Bechtel), co-chair of USCIB’s SDG Working Group, as a featured speaker at a February Chevron Forum at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, D.C.

Entitled Business in the Post-2015 Development Agenda, the forum served to underscore the business case for private sector-led investment in development. Speakers emphasized the importance of good governance and economic growth and empowerment, and drew attention to USCIB’s recommendations.

“Business has a critical role to play, said Condon. “For example, investment flows dwarf government development aid. Businesses can leverage their resources and expertise in ways that drive growth in developing economies and bring innovative solutions to solve sustainable development challenges.”

Nguyen agreed. “Unlike the MDGs a decade ago, U.S. multinationals are more informed and engaged,” he told the forum. “They have shifted from mere observers to participants in promoting sustainable development.”

Other speakers at the CSIS forum included White House Counselor John Podesta and Daniella Ballou-Aares of the State Department.

Target for completion is 2015

The SDGs are slated to be completed and delivered to the UN General Assembly for approval in 2015, and the first round of deliberations to gather government views concluded on February 7. The international community is now awaiting a UN document compiling “priority areas” for further discussion on potential SDG goals and targets. Once it is released, USCIB will analyze this document for business issues requiring our engagement.

The UN SDG deliberations resume on March 3. USCIB will also develop elaborated papers on each of the four USCIB elements and other materials. Future USCIB action would also seek to inform government discussions on metrics for private sector investment in development.

Other discussions, convened by the president of the UN General Assembly and the UN Experts Group on Finance, will also contribute to developing the structure, priorities and resources needed for the UN Post-2015 Development Agenda. USCIB will continue to monitor and inform these deliberations through its SDG working group, which is co-chaired by Brian Lowry (Monsanto) and Nguyen, and participate through the Global Business Alliance for Post-2015 Development to convey U.S. business views.

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

USCIB is gearing up to represent American business at the next United Nations climate conference in Warsaw next month. The clock is ticking, with governments having committed to forging a new comprehensive climate agreement, to take effect in 2020, by the end of 2015.

Expectations are modest for the 19th conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, to be held November 11-22. Yet according to Norine Kennedy, USCIB’s vice president for strategic international engagement, the recent release of the first installment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) 5th assessment report, along with political and economic pressures on climate negotiators to make progress, will be  major considerations  in the Warsaw discussions.

USCIB has secured recognition as an accredited business organization to the UN Framework Convention, and for the first time will send a USCIB delegation to the talks, led by Ann Condon (GE) chair of USCIB’s Environment Committee, and USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson.

Top USCIB priorities for the negotiations include energy security, access to energy and protection of intellectual property rights, Kennedy said. “We will work closely with the International Chamber of Commerce and the Major Economies Business Forum [known as BizMEF] to make the case for a comprehensive agreement, one that strengthens enabling frameworks for business investment and innovation across all sectors.”

Kennedy said BizMEF will organize a business dialogue in Warsaw to lay out a roadmap for substantive and recognized business input, following the successful event on this topic in Doha last year.

First-ever ministerial meeting with business

USCIB also played a leading role in two important preparatory meetings, advocating for meaningful opportunities for business views and involvement in the new international climate regime.

Earlier this month, private-sector representatives took part in ministerial talks in Warsaw organized by Poland’s environment ministry. It was the first time since the original Rio Earth Summit in 1992 that business groups were invited to play such an active role in shaping a global climate agreement. The Polish business organization, Lewiatan, USCIB and other member business organizations of BizMEF (including BusinessEurope, Business New Zealand, Keidanren and the Brazilian Confederation of Business) were on hand. USCIB member companies also took part, including GE, Boeing and Intel.

Speaking at the ministerial-business consultation, Kennedy stated that the UN Framework Convention should continue this process, since “an effective and recognized dialogue between business and government at both national and international arenas will be critical to the successful design and roll-out of the new international agreement.” The Polish government expressed its intention to encourage the continuation of such business-government consultations over this next phase of negotiations.

Speeding technology deployment

Separately, on September 19 in Washington, D.C., USCIB partnered with the Business Council for Sustainable Energy to convene a U.S. business consultation on the new UN Climate Technology Center and Network (CTCN).

UN negotiators have established a “Technology Mechanism” to facilitate the faster uptake of climate-related technologies by developing countries. The CTCN is the Technology Mechanism’s technical arm, created to answer specific technology requests from developing countries.

The dialogue, hosted by the UN Foundation, brought together American business executives with U.S. and Canadian government officials and representatives of the UN Environment Program. Participants addressed:

• specific barriers to technology cooperation that the CTCN can help address
• priority areas on which the CTCN should focus
• specific services  to foster private sector investments in adaptation and mitigation technologies in developing countries
• links with finance institutions and investors
• ways to engage with and attract the private sector.

USCIB will work with the Business Council for Sustainable Energy and the International Chamber of Commerce to identify areas where the business community can inform the work of the CTCN as it gets up and running.

Staff contact: Norine Kennedy

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

On September 26, on the margins of the UN General Assembly, USCIB members met with UN and member state representatives to discuss U.S. business priorities in the UN’s new development agenda and UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Hosted by Pfizer, the day of “UN door-knock” policy consultations included a Green Economies Dialogue luncheon roundtable on green growth aspects of the SDGs. (Click here to view videos from the event.)

“USCIB members are arguing for a strong focus on peace, security, good governance and economic growth in the SDGs,” said Clifford Henry (Procter & Gamble), Chair of USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee, who led the business delegation. “These and other fundamental priorities underpin enabling conditions for job creation, environmental stewardship and economic development.”

USCIB members underscored the need for open trade and investment regimes, as well as strong intellectual property protection, as prerequisites for the deployment of business, financial, and technical expertise to advance development and address international challenges of energy access, food security and poverty eradication.  Other companies taking part included American Chemistry Council, Diageo, ExxonMobil, General Electric and Pfizer.

In the morning, USCIB members met with Ambassador Takehiro Kagawa, of the Japanese Ministry for Foreign Affairs, and Daniella Ballou-Aares, Special Advisor on development to the U.S. Secretary of State. In the afternoon, Karina Gerlach, a member of the UN Secretary General’s High-Level Expert Group for the Post-2015 Development Agenda, and Shamshad Akhtar, the UN’s Assistant Secretary General for economic development, briefed the group on work-streams that make up the UN-wide effort – including the Experts Group on Finance for Sustainable Development – and suggested ways to involve business in these deliberations.

”Events like this one are an opportunity to advance a common agenda of prosperity and betterment of the human condition,” stated USCIB President and CEO Peter Robinson in opening theGreen Economies Dialogue roundtable: Speakers from MIT, the U.S. State Department, the UN Development Program, the University of California at San Diego and the Colombian Ministry of Foreign Affairs provided their perspectives on ways to prioritize and track economic aspects of progress under the SDGs, and the opportunity to engage the business community in developed and developing countries in partnerships as part of the UN post-2015 development deliberations.

The Green Economies Dialogue is a platform – created by USCIB and the United States Council Foundation in the lead-up to last year’s Rio+20 earth summit – for business to engage with national governments, thought leaders, representatives of international institutions and academics on green growth and green economy issues.

The second phase of the Green Economies Dialogue will concentrate on interaction with governments and the UN around the Post-2015 Development Agenda, especially concerning greener economic development and the formulation and pursuit of the SDGs. These goals are expected to drive UN activities, direct national budgets and influence stakeholder expectations in coming years, across a wide range of strategic issues, such as corporate responsibility, environmental regulation, and energy.

To aid in the development of business views and advocacy, USCIB has formed an SDG Working Group co-chaired by Brian Lowry (Monsanto) and Tam Nguyen (Bechtel).

More on USCIB’s Environment Committee

More on USCIB’s Corporate Responsibility Committee