Today, Frankly Speaking welcomes Professor Michael H. Posner, director of the Centre for Business and Human Rights at NYU Stern School of Business. He also served in the Obama administration as assistant secretary of State.

Throughout his career, Mike has played a key role in establishing some of the major global initiatives on responsible business, including the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights, the Fair Labor Association, and the Global Network Initiative, and he continues to be one of the leading voices on business and human rights in the United States.

You’ll hear more about:

• How too much about business and human rights is still process, not outcome or performance.
• Why companies must not abrogate responsibility
• A strong call for standards on due diligence for genuine accountability for businesses on their conduct
• The difficult political situation in the United States at the moment and how to respond to the ESG backlash

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This week, Richard Howitt welcomes Robert McCorquodale, professor of international law and human rights and current chair of the United Nations Working Group on Business and Human Rights, to discuss their report presented last month to the 56th Human Rights Council on investor responsibility to respect human rights. You can read a summary of the report here.

In this episode, you’ll hear about:

• ESG is not the same as human rights: there must be a systematic integration or the consideration of human rights in relation to ESG
• How investors should and can prevent 'rightswashing'
• A call for the EU to look again in two years at including investment in the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD)
• While soft law holds significant importance, it is the amendment of hard law that ultimately brings about substantial and concrete change

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Germany's NewClimate Institute has produced the Corporate Climate Responsibility Monitor, evaluating the transparency and integrity of climate pledges of 51 major companies across different sectors and geographies.

Richard Howitt welcomes Frederic Hans and Thomas Day, co-authors of the report to discuss their findings and key recommendations to companies in their journey to net-zero.

In this episode, you’ll find more about:

• Good business practices and what makes a business leader in climate action efforts

• Checklist of things to avoid if companies want to try and do this better

• If the ESRS and ISSB Standards are improving things and if companies can feel confident in following them?

• The need for science-based targets and what SBTi should do next

• What is green hushing and to what extent it can be dangerous

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