Group of Friends of Paragraph 47 Briefing to Permanent Missions

The Governments of Brazil, Denmark, France and South Africa formed the Group of Friends of Paragraph 47 (GoF47) in June 2012, following the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), also known as Rio+20. Paragraph 47 of the outcome document, known as “The future we want”, acknowledged the importance of corporate sustainability reporting. Since then, the Governments of Colombia, Norway and Switzerland have joined the Group. The GoF47 Secretariat is provided by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).

The Geneva Environment Network Secretariat organized a session on GoF47 work and achievements, led by the Chair of the Group, Robin Edme (France), with the participation of representatives of other member countries and the GoF47 Secretariat. (presentation available for download below)

More information on the Group of Friends of Paragraph 47 available on UNEP website.

Paragraph 47. We acknowledge the importance of corporate sustainability reporting and encourage companies, where appropriate, especially publicly listed and large companies, to consider integrating sustainability information into their reporting cycle. We encourage industry, interested governments and relevant stakeholders with the support of the United Nations system, as appropriate, to develop models for best practice and facilitate action for the integration of sustainability reporting, taking into account experiences from already existing frameworks and paying particular attention to the needs of developing countries, including for capacity building.

https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/invitation_7_november_low.pdf

https://www.genevaenvironmentnetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/gof_presentationslides.oct2013.6nov_gof_intro.pdf