UN Global Compact Office Addresses Gulf Crisis and BP

(New York, 16 June 2010) The UN Global Compact Office wishes to express its great
concern over the environmental, ecological and economic crisis occurring in the Gulf of
Mexico as a result of the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig and subsequent
and ongoing oil spill.

Of the UN Global Compacts ten principles, three are directly related to environmental
issues. Indeed, one of the core tenets of the UN Global Compact is that economic
development is not sustainable unless accompanied by environmental stewardship.

Reflecting this, the UN Global Compact Office has developed an Environmental

Stewardship Strategy for use by corporations of all sizes, to be introduced at the Global
Compact Leaders Summit on 24-25 June. The UN Global Compact Office hopes that it
will be widely adopted by business participants around the world.

Regarding BP specifically, the UN Global Compact Office wishes to correct the record
and note that BP is, in fact, a communicating participant in the UN Global Compact,
having met its annual reporting requirement on 9 June 2010.
(See: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/participant/1433-BP-Plc)

The Gulf oil spill also shows that markets need effective regulation without which they
cannot properly function. At the same time, voluntary initiatives, such as the Global
Compact, are not a substitute for, but a complement to such regulation.

In fact, the UN Global Compact Office wishes to re-emphasize that the initiative is
fundamentally a learning and dialogue platform intended to assist companies in
improving their corporate responsibility performance and addressing difficult challenges.

We believe that the Gulf crisis underscores the importance of a precautionary approach to
environmental risks and challenges, and in this respect we hope that the Global
Compacts core environmental principle related to a precautionary approach will
receive greater attention and consideration by all stakeholders.

In light of this context, we hope that BP will use its current crisis to re-commit to the
Global Compact principles and strengthen its engagement in the initiative. We would
welcome the companys renewed engagement, which has been lagging in recent years.
Learning from BPs situation could help businesses of all sectors help develop better and
more effective policies and procedures to address environmental risks and prevent future
crises. For BP, we strongly hope that the company will emerge from this disaster
committed to becoming a force for environmental stewardship around the world.

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