UN
Global Compact Duo Call Food Price Speculation Serious,
But No Guidance Offered
Byline: Matthew
Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS,
May
1 -- Corporate chieftains on the board of the UN Global Compact met
Thursday in
a UN conference room. Outside a stakeout microphone had been set up;
the press had
been told that the CEOs would be available for comment. Only one,
however,
deigned to take questions from the press, the ex officio chairman of
the
Foundation for the Global Compact, Mark Moody-Stuart of Anglo-American
Mining.
Inner City Press asked him if the Compact's board has discussed
corporate roles
in the food price crisis, including as speculating and profiting on the
price
rises. "It's an issue of serious concern to companies," Moody-Stuart
said, but added that "the Compact cannot offer advice or
guidance." Another reporter
wondered, what's it good for then?
Moments later, Moody-Stuart reversed
course and had the Compact "encouraging" companies "to sign up
for the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative." Moody-Stuart
said
of "countries with weak governance" that if you pour aid in, "it
leaks away." He said that even
forgiveness, presumably of debt, leaks away. He said he was recently in
Norway,
with the EITI has established its Secretariat, to meet with major
donors to the
Global Compact. He praised Norway as a country moving to show how its
oil
revenues are spent. Audio
here, in MP3.
While not at the UN microphone, Mary
Robinson, former High Commissioner of Human Rights, took two questions
from
Inner City Press. Of the links between financial speculation and rising
food
prices she said "absolutely," there is one, although the Compact has
yet to discuss it. Of the Beijing Olympics, she said that topic was
raised at a
recent meeting of the Compact's Human Rights Working Group in Boston,
that the
companies at the meeting noted that protests of the journey of the
Olympic
torch "had an impact, they are meeting with the Dalai Lama." She said
the companies wanted to see avoided any "push of ordinary Chinese
toward
nationalism," which she said "would be not good for China or for the
rest of the world."
![](un1maryr.jpg)
Mary Robinson, with UN logo, standards
for food price speculators not yet shown
Moody-Stuart's comments on China
were that if the rising costs of food and other "inputs" leads to a
slow-down of the Chinese economy, the whole world will suffer. He said that many Compact members are
involved as sponsors in the Olympics, and while "it doesn't mean we
should
forget the other issues," engagement is what it's all about.
Meanwhile, the other members of the
Compact
board did not deign to take
questions, with the
exception of Petro-Bras' CEO speaking with a Brazilian journalist, and
Emirati
environmentalist Habiba al Marashi speaking with a regional newspaper.
On the
board, but not speaking on these issues, were chieftains from Goldman
Sachs,
Areva, Tata, Lego, Fuji and Deloitte. And so it goes at the UN.
* * *
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