Heads of State, Chief Executive Officers and global leaders commit to accelerate and scale the global, collective impact of business

New York, United States of America

More than 12,000 leaders from business, Government, the United Nations and civil society gathered  for the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit to elevate ambition for a just, equitable and sustainable world.  

UNITED NATIONS, New York, 2 June 2022 — The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón and the President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horte, joined CEOs from big and small companies at the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit to elevate business ambition for a just, equitable and sustainable world.

Led by the UN Secretary-General António Guterres and Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General and CEO of the UN Global Compact, the 24-hour Leaders Summit attracted more than 12,000 participants and leaders from the UN, governments, civil society and UN Global Compact Local Networks in every time zone.

The virtual event included in-person meetings in Bangkok, Thailand, as well as the opening of the UN Stockholm +50 conference to commemorate the 1972 UN Conference on the Human Environment and celebrate 50 years of global environmental action.

Over 24 hours of plenary and panel discussions, business leaders committed to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change.

“Whatever the size of your business, whatever the industry in which you are, the time for bold action is now. You are here today because of the commitments you have made. Commitments to net-zero emissions and sustainability, to the Ten Principles of the Global Compact, from supporting human rights and labour to the environment and the fight against corruption, commitment to gender equality, to closing the gender pay gap and to paying a living wage. Commitments that must be fit for purpose to help overcome the challenges that developing countries are facing. Taken together, these commitments provide the best way to business that is sustainable, inclusive, constructive, green, resilient and long-term profitable” said the UN Secretary-General António Guterres in his opening remarks.

Sanda Ojiambo, Assistant Secretary-General and CEO of the UN Global Compact, spoke about the challenges facing the world today: “Today the world is still struggling to emerge from the coronavirus pandemic – a battle that will only be won when vaccines reach everyone – and remedy the disruptions it has set off in the global economy. Earlier this year, the IPCC published its gloomiest report yet, warning that time is no longer on our side to prevent a climate change catastrophe. And on top of these disasters, the war in Ukraine is posing a direct systemic and persisting threat to global security on three fronts: food, energy and human. In times such as these, business is called upon to act. A reason for optimism is that we are seeing businesses taking action; providing solutions; forming coalitions of the willing. Nevertheless there is still more that needs to be done, particularly with regards to mobilizing the financing and investments required for delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals”

The Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez Pérez-Castejón, noted in the opening session how the private sector can work with the public sector to be a powerful force for change: “Successes such as the development, in record time, of safe and effective vaccines against Covid-19 have only been possible thanks to our ability to establish public-private partnerships. We must therefore continue to join forces and seek courageous and creative solutions to create a better, more sustainable, more inclusive and fairer world.” 

The President of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horte, appealed to the business community to end poverty while protecing and promoting human and labour rights: “How can we the private sector and Government work together to mobilize the resources so that we can rescue children from child labour, child slavery and rescue our fellow human beings, hundreds of millions of them, from extreme poverty? This is my message and appeal to all of you.”

The UN Global Compact announced a new SME Engagement Strategy to harness the collective action of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for the SDGs, particularly ​​sustainable growth and employment (SDG 8) and sustainable industrialization and innovation (SDG 9). 

A new China strategy to accelerate and increase the impact of private sector players in China in order to drive progress towards principled business and the SDGs was also announced during the China plenary session in the presence of the Permanent Representative of China to the UN, Jun Zhang; the Board Member and Vice-Chairman of State-Owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of State Council of China (SASAC) Hongbin Ren and the President of New Development Bank, Marcos Prado Troyjo.

This year’s UN Global Compact Leaders Summit also celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Children’s Rights and Business Principles. Catherine Russell, Executive Director of UNICEF, noted the critical role of business in advancing children’s rights: “Working systematically to address the adverse impacts of business conduct on children and to prevent the conduct that creates bad outcomes to begin with will in turn help build a stronger workforce, more stable operating environments and a more human world for everyone.”

The closing session saw the announcement of 10 new UN Global Compact SDG Pioneers  – business leaders from around the world who are doing an exceptional job to advance the SDGs through the implementation of the UN Global Compact Ten Principles on human rights, environment, labour and anti-corruption. 

All sessions from the UN Global Compact Leaders Summit 2022 can be viewed on our YouTube channel.

Notes to Editors

About the UN Global Compact

As a special initiative of the UN Secretary-General, the United Nations Global Compact is a call to companies everywhere to align their operations and strategies with Ten Principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and anti-corruption. Our ambition is to accelerate and scale the global collective impact of business by upholding the Ten Principles and delivering the Sustainable Development Goals through accountable companies and ecosystems that enable change. With more than 15,000 companies and 3,000 non-business signatories based in over 160 countries, and 69 Local Networks, the UN Global Compact is the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative — one Global Compact uniting business for a better world. 

For more information, follow @globalcompact on social media and visit our website at unglobalcompact.org.