UN Global Compact Office Addresses Gulf Crisis and BP (New York, 16 June 2010) – The UN Global Compact Office wishes to express its great concern over the environmental, ecological and economic crisis occurring in the Gulf of Mexico as a result of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent – and ongoing – oil spill. Of the UN Global Compact’s ten principles, three are directly related to environmental issues. Indeed, one of the core tenets of the UN Global Compact is that economic development is not sustainable unless accompanied by environmental stewardship. Reflecting this, the UN Global Compact Office has developed an Environmental Stewardship Strategy for use by corporations of all sizes, to be introduced at the Global Compact Leaders Summit on 24-25 June. The UN Global Compact Office hopes that it will be widely adopted by business participants around the world. Regarding BP specifically, the UN Global Compact Office wishes to correct the record and note that BP is, in fact, a “communicating participant” in the UN Global Compact, having met its annual reporting requirement on 9 June 2010. (See: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/participant/1433-BP-Plc) The Gulf oil spill also shows that markets need effective regulation without which they cannot properly function. At the same time, voluntary initiatives, such as the Global Compact, are not a substitute for, but a complement to such regulation. In fact, the UN Global Compact Office wishes to re-emphasize that the initiative is fundamentally a learning and dialogue platform intended to assist companies in improving their corporate responsibility performance and addressing difficult challenges. We believe that the Gulf crisis underscores the importance of a precautionary approach to environmental risks and challenges, and – in this respect – we hope that the Global Compact’s core environmental principle related to “a precautionary approach” will receive greater attention and consideration by all stakeholders. In light of this context, we hope that BP will use its current crisis to re-commit to the Global Compact principles and strengthen its engagement in the initiative. We would welcome the company’s renewed engagement, which has been lagging in recent years. Learning from BP’s situation could help businesses of all sectors help develop better and more effective policies and procedures to address environmental risks and prevent future crises. For BP, we strongly hope that the company will emerge from this disaster committed to becoming a force for environmental stewardship around the world.

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