ICC News

28 September 2020 Global business, workers, and civil society call on all governments to ensure equitable access to COVID-19 health tools. In an open letter issued today, ICC, ITUC, and Global Citizen called for all governments to intensify their political and financial commitments to the Access to COVID tools accelerator (ACT-A), an unprecedented collaboration between intergovernmental organisations, industry and civil society that would ensure the equitable access to, and allocation of, the most critical health tools to fight Covid-19: vaccines, therapeutics and diagnostics. With the world at a critical moment in the COVID-19 pandemic, the letter signed by John W.H. Denton

28 September 2020 In a major international broadcast, Maria Fernanda Garza – ICC First Vice-Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Orestia – became one of the first signatories of the UN-recognised “SME Climate Commitment”, which forms part of the SME Climate Hub initiative launched to provide small businesses with clear commercial incentives to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. In making the commitment, Orestia has pledged to halve its carbon emissions by 2030, achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 and to regularly report on progress towards these aims. Orestia is the very first small business in Latin America to join the SME Climate

28 September 2020 ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO has joined forces with global leaders in a pledge to Reverse Biodiversity Loss by 2030 for Sustainable Development. Ahead of Wednesday’s United Nations Summit on Biodiversity Mr Denton has become a signatory of the Leaders’ Pledge for Nature which aims to ramp up long-term global ambition and commitment to take transformative actions for nature, climate and people. Announced today during a high level event, the pledge states: “Nature fundamentally underpins human health, wellbeing and prosperity. We need to appropriately value nature and the services it provides as we make decisions and recognize

23 September 2020 ICC, UNDP and UN Global Compact join forces with DHL, Microsoft and PwC to help communities recover better from the pandemic. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the United Nations Global Compact (UN Global Compact) and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) have established the COVID-19 Private Sector Global Facility, a global initiative and collaboration bringing together public and private sector partners to help local communities recover better from the pandemic. Deutsche Post DHL Group, Microsoft Corp. and the PwC network (“PwC”) have already joined the COVID-19 Private Sector Global Facility and the initiative is open for other

21 September 2020 A new SME Climate Hub will support small- and medium-sized businesses to curb carbon emissions to increase competitiveness. A coalition of major organisations has announced the launch of  the ground breaking one-stop shop climate action platform for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to curb carbon emissions, build business resilience and gain a competitive advantage. The SME Climate Hub – co-hosted by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Exponential Roadmap Initiative, the We Mean Business coalition and the United Nations Race to Zero campaign – launches today at the 2020-edition of New York Climate Week. The SME Climate

18 September 2020 In a letter published in the Financial Times today, ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO calls on G20 leaders to heed warnings over the real-world consequences of banks retreating from financing commodity traders. Already threatening the livelihoods of small businesses who rely on funding and work on narrow margins, the worrying trend says Mr Denton, “could be a precursor to a much broader shortfall in the supply of trade credit once demand returns to the global economy.” Earlier this year, ICC warned that trade financing gaps risk hampering a global recovery – impacting the survival chances of small

11 September 2020 ICC Albania Commission on Arbitration and ADR and other experts from its membership issues recommendations and comments on the new draft law on Arbitration published for public consultation. Please find below documents prepared by our working group: New Draft Law text - with tracked suggestions Additional Recommendations  

9 September 2020 The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Business for Peace Foundation are pleased to announce today the three winners of the 2020 Oslo Business for Peace Award. The International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and the Business for Peace Foundation are pleased to announce today the three winners of the 2020 Oslo Business for Peace Award.  This year’s honourees are Marc Benioff, Founder, Chair and CEO of Salesforce, James Mwangi, Chairman and CEO of Equity Group Holdings and Felicitas “Joji” Bautista Pantoja, Co-Founder and CEO of Coffee for Peace. The Oslo Business for Peace Award is awarded annually to business leaders for their outstanding businessworthy accomplishments and to recognise efforts to foster

8 September 2020 ICC Secretary General John W.H. Denton AO today addressed a meeting of Finance Ministers, convened by the United Nations Deputy Secretary-General and the Finance Ministers of Canada and Jamaica. Reaffirming ICC’s solidarity with governments in the effort to protect lives and livelihoods in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, Mr Denton highlighted the devastating effects of the pandemic on business and their associated concern with the debt sustainability of their respective governments. Speaking on behalf of 45 million companies worldwide during the High-Level Event on Financing for Development in the Era of COVID-19 and Beyond, Mr Denton said:

8 September 2020 ICC – renowned for its global standards that enable trillions of dollars of cross-border transactions each year – has announced the operational launch of a major new initiative to ensure the benefits of digital trade can be realised by everyone, everywhere. The ICC Digital Standards Initiative (DSI) will work towards the ambitious aim of establishing a globally harmonised, digitised trade environment – directly addressing disruptions experienced during the COVID-19 crisis as a result of the reliance of trade flows on paper documentation. Although the workplace implications of the pandemic have accelerated adoption of digital technologies, significant barriers remain