The Climate Governance Commission highlights the importance of establishing strong legal mechanisms to ensure accountability for corporate behaviour relating to climate protection, and notes in this regard the negotiations for an international treaty on transnational corporations and human rights.
Following a proposal of Ecuador, the UN Human Rights Committee in 2015 established an Open-ended intergovernmental working group on transnational corporations and other business enterprises with respect to human rights (IGWG). The IGWG has prepared a Draft legally binding instrument (clean version) to regulate, in international human rights law, the activities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises.
The Climate Governance Commission proposes that the draft treaty include specific reference to the responsibilities of businesses with regard to the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
Friends of the Earth International is leading a global campaign to support the negotiations for the treaty and to ensure strong accountability provisions are included in the treaty to protect human rights and the environment.