The Group of Friends of Paragraph 47 issues its Charter, encourages other governments to join

  • Leaf - sustainability (green) Image

11 Dec 2012

The Group of Friends of Paragraph 47, formed by the governments of Brazil, Denmark, France and South Africa during the Rio+20 conference in June 2012, has published its Charter. The group is named for paragraph 47 of the outcome document of the conference which acknowledged the importance of corporate sustainability reporting.

In its Charter, the group welcomes the unanimous endorsement of the conference outcome document entitled The future we want, and acknowledges the importance of engagement between governments, the UN and other relevant stakeholders.

The Charter encourages the continuous exchange of experience and best practice on policy and market regulation between governments to promote sustainability reporting. It also maintains that sustainability reporting is relevant globally, and that the needs of developing countries should be given particular attention.

The members have committed to choose the most relevant policy tools applicable to their culture and jurisdiction to further sustainability reporting and to engage with interested stakeholders in open and constructive dialogue. To this end the formation of an ‘international reference group’ that will enable a structured stakeholder engagement process is currently discussed.

In the Charter, the four founding group members expressly invite other governments to join. The Norwegian Government has announced its intention to join the Group.

The Charter is available on the Global Reporting Initiative website. The initiative acts as the group’s secretariat.

Correction list for hyphenation

These words serve as exceptions. Once entered, they are only hyphenated at the specified hyphenation points. Each word should be on a separate line.