At UN, UK's Alan Duncan Ducks BP Question on CSR, UN Global Compact with PetroChina as Sponsor

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/bp2ungc062310.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 23 -- On the 66th day of BP's oil gushing into the Gulf of Mexico, UK Minister of State for International Development Alan Duncan appeared at the UN for a UN Global Compact event. Inner City Press asked Minister Duncan to describe the role of the British government in making BP -- British Petroleum -- live to the corporate social responsibility standards of the Global Compact. Video here, from Minute 28:12.

“It's not for me to answer that questions,” Minister Duncan answered. “You very carefully, carefully steered your question to something which you wish to generate a headline, but it is not the purpose of our meeting.”

But the title of the meeting, and related Ministerial Statement, was “The Role of Government in Promoting Corporate Responsibility.” That the UK government has some responsibility for overseeing the practices of one of its largest corporation, the former Anglo-Persian oil company, is axiomatic.

Why then did Minister Duncan duck the question, and why would the UN, which says that the Global Compact and its events promote transparency, assist Minister Duncan be stepping in to dodge other parts of the question, and then quickly give the floor to another speaker? Video here, from Minute 28:51.

Inner City Press asked about the financial sponsors of the June 24-25 Global Compact Leaders Summit, including PetroChina, which has been protested for its investments with Sudan in Darfur. “The conference has many sources of support,” said the UN's Bob Orr, “all publicly available.”

But the UN's press pack has no list of sponsors. Perhaps Global Compact chief Georg Kell, who in mid June when Inner City Press asked about BP said “accidents happen,” will now provide the list of fiscal sponsors. Watch this site.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/bp2ungc062310.html

BP is Defended by UN, "Accidents Happen, Nature of Modern Life," Global Compact

By Matthew Russell Lee
www.innercitypress.com/bp1ungc061510.html

UNITED NATIONS, June 15, updated with a UNGC correction -- As BP continues gushing oil for over 50 days into the Gulf of Mexico, at the UN on June 14, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's main adviser on corporate social responsibility defended the company.

"Big accidents happen all the time, it's the nature of modern life," said Georg Kell, Executive Director of the UN Global Compact. Video here, from Minute 42:20.

Kell was promoting an upcoming CSR event slated for New York on June 24, featuring Ban and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Inner City Press asked about several participating and donating corporation, including a tobacco distributor and a company of mercenaries or soldiers of fortune.

Then Inner City Press asked about BP, a long time Global Compact member. Video here, from Minute 33:11.

Kell claimed that BP has not been active in the Compact for two years. "I think their current status is non communicating," he said. But even as he said it, on the Global Compact website BP was listed as fully in compliance, with its next "communication of progress" not due until June 9, 2011.

One can only imagine what "progress" BP will communicate to the UN at that time. The reality is that the UN has no substantive standards for membership in the Global Compact.

Despite receiving numerous detailed complaints, the UN Global Compact has for example kept as a member PetroChina and its investment in Darfur with the Sudanese government of Omar al Bashir, indicted by the International Criminal Court.

That Kell would try to misrepresent the status of BP with the Global Compact, and so quickly try to distance the Compact from BP before defending it, reflects that BP's image is now worse than PetroChina's.

But that Kell would then dismissively say of BP's still gushing undersea pipeline, "Big accidents happen all the time, it's the nature of modern life," shows either that Kell is not the right person to lead the UN's Global Compact, or that the UN is not what it claims to be - or both. Watch this site.

Diplomatic footnote: "It seems that Kell is more responsive to the UK than the US," opined one senior UN official, who requested anonymity due to Ban Ki-moon's anti whistleblower policies. "But where is [US Ambassador] Susan Rice on this, given Obama's new public attacks on Tony Hayward and BP?"

Update - the day after this report, the UNGC put out a correction of Kell's statement -- and didn't even send it to Inner City Press.

And see, www.innercitypress.com/bp1ungc061510.html