December 2017: Working in partnership with the UN, businesses are undertaking efforts to contribute to the SDGs. The Global Compact Local Network in Latin America is emphasizing multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder collaboration, and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) has partnered with others to implement market-based green solutions.

The UN Global Compact and the Global Compact Local Network in Ecuador convened a high-level event on the theme, ‘The Business Sector Contribution to the 2030 Agenda in Latin America,’ which discussed the potential of multi-sectoral collaboration to achieve the SDGs. The meeting convened on 21 November 2017, in Quito, Ecuador, under the sub-theme ‘Making Global Goals Local Business’ and with the participation of 13 Global Compact Local Networks from the region. The event emphasized: the importance of public-private, multi-stakeholder policy dialogues to implement national plans towards achieving the SDGs; the impact of businesses that adopt a human rights-based approach aligned with the UN Global Compact’s principles and the SDGs; adoption and implementation of the Women’s Empowerment Principles by companies; the role of public-private partnerships (PPPs) in creating innovative financial tools; and the impact of Global Compact Local Networks in mobilizing businesses in the region to advance the 2030 Agenda. ‘SDG Awards’ were also presented to Ecuadorian companies that have demonstrated good practices towards advancing each of the SDGs. [UN Global Compact News Story] [Event Website] [Event Concept Note]

UNEP entered into agreements with the World Economic Forum (WEF) and Philips Lighting. The arrangements will help develop new technologies and economic models that contribute to the SDGs, focus on market-based implementable green solutions, and aim to identify and promote opportunities for green investment driven by advances in science and technology and innovative financing. The UNEP-WEF agreement was launched during the inaugural UN Global Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment.

The UN Global Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment convened for the first time from 2-3 December 2017, in Nairobi, Kenya, in the lead up to the third session of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA 3). The Forum aims to strengthen the interface between science, policy, business and society, and addresses challenges and opportunities for environmental sustainability in the ‘Fourth Industrial Revolution,’ innovations and opportunities in big data and earth observation systems, and the inter-related themes of energy, air, climate, water, food, ecosystems, biodiversity and oceans. [UN Environment Press Release] [UN Global Science-Policy-Business Forum on the Environment]