Transnational Corporations and Global Environmental Governance (original) (raw)
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The Impact of Transnational Corporations on Global Environment : A Critical Study
IAEME PUBLICATION, 2020
Transnational corporations (TNCs) increasingly shape our lives as they weave worldwide webs of production, consumption, finance, and culture. Their ability to undermine or avoid government regulation and their rising strength relative to national governments have sparked citizen concern across the planet. At this juncture transnational corporations are not only playing a vital role in global economy but also acting as major factor in degradation of environment. The impact on transnational corporation on global environment, human health and natural bodies is severe and it is very difficult to estimate the loss suffered by earth due to illicit and unfavorable activities of corporations. It is true that for the growth of the country TNC is necessary but not at the cost of the environment. Environmental irresponsibility is one of the most prominent issues confronting host communities of transnational corporations (TNCs) engaged in the production of economic goods and, sometimes, services.
Chartering Sustainable Transnational Corporations
Using a recent innovative Oregon sustainable corporation law as a springboard, this article argues for requiring all transnational corporations to be chartered as sustainable corporations. Given the far-reaching effects of their operations and their uniquely powerful role, the global wealth that has been accumulated in these organizations must be fundamentally redirected toward creating a sustainable world. As a privilege of doing transnational business, transnational corporations should be required to incorporate environmental and social responsibility into their corporate charters-the document that sets forth the prime mission of the corporation and its directors, essentially baking sustainability into the corporate DNA of transnational corporations. To be both effective and to harness the entrepreneurial creativity of these organizations, the sustainable corporation charter must be implemented per provisions that require transnational corporations to develop corporate sustainability strategies in accordance with the guidance provided by the implementing provisions. The implementing provisions should also require that the transnational corporations monitor and report in a standardized manner compliance with the corporate sustainability strategy, with sustainability-related laws, and with nonbinding environmental, labor, human rights, corruption, and other sustainability-related standards. The sustainable corporation charter requirement should be imposed as a matter of international law, through an international convention and administered by an international commission. The requirements should be directly applicable to transnational corporations as a condition of doing transnational business. The commission should be authorized to take enforcement action directly against the corporation. In addition, both home and host nations to transnational corporations should agree to compel the corporations-either incorporated in that nation or doing business in that nation-to comply with the sustainable corporation charter requirement as a condition of doing any business. Nations that fail to join the international convention, or that fail to enforce the international convention, should be subject to mandatory trade and other economic sanctions by all signatories to the international agreement. We can no longer allow transnational corporations to aggregate the bulk of societal wealth and then operate in an environmentally and socially irresponsible manner. The proposals in this article are one step toward turning transnational corporations into sustainable corporations.
This paper explores the possibilities and limitations of different approaches to the regulation of transnational corporations in a context of globalization. Looking at environmental initiatives in particular, the paper considers the pros and cons of emerging public and private strategies for promoting corporate responsibility from a development perspective. The role of`civil regulation', litigation against companies, and international legal instruments are assessed in this light. It is argued that each of these approaches, while not necessarily complementary, has a role to play in promoting positive investment strategies and deterring irresponsible investment practices in developing countries.
MANAGING MULTINATIONALS: THE GOVERNANCE OF INVESTMENT FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
This paper explores the possibilities and limitations of different approaches to the regulation of transnational corporations in a context of globalization. Looking at environmental initiatives in particular, the paper considers the pros and cons of emerging public and private strategies for promoting corporate responsibility from a development perspective. The role of`civil regulation', litigation against companies, and international legal instruments are assessed in this light. It is argued that each of these approaches, while not necessarily complementary, has a role to play in promoting positive investment strategies and deterring irresponsible investment practices in developing countries.
Legal aspects of transnational scale corporations' activity in terms of sustainable development
RIVISTA DI STUDI SULLA SOSTENIBILITA, 2021
This paper discusses the legal aspects of the activities of transnational corporations. The relevance of the subject matter is determined by the significant impact exerted by transnational corporations on the world economy in general and on the economic situation of the country in which such corporations are registered as a subject of legal form of ownership in particular. Quality functioning of transnational corporations is an effective factor for the formation of sustainable development. This study reveals and determines the relationship between the scale of activity of transnational corporations and their legal status within the framework of both single countries and entire economic communities, the individual subjects of law of which are transnational corporations. The practical significance of this study lies in the possibility of identifying and stating key aspects that play a significant role in assessing the practical activities of transnational corporations in the context of existing legal law with the ability to use the identified patterns in specific legal practice. The results of this study can be of significant practical importance for employees in the field of legal support for the activities of transnational-scale corporations, who are faced with the need to deeply analyse the legal aspects of the activities of these organisations and provide management of such structures with timely, highquality legal recommendations regarding the correction of the activities of these organisations in the context of the existing legal field.
The environmental practices and performance of transnational corporations
Transnational Corporations, 1995
This article presents a framework that relates financial, regulatory and organizational variables to the environmental practices and performances of transnational corporations. The framework is tested empirically using multiple regression analysis. The results suggest that organizational and regulatory factors influence environmental practices, but that the relationship between practice and performance is weak. No relationship is found between environmental performance and subsequent financial performance.
The lack of accountability of transnational corporations (TNCs) for any harmful behaviour in the fields of environment, labour and human rights is a concern for the global community. Despite various attempts, neither the United Nations nor the home or host countries of most TNCs have so far provided any effective, binding solutions. This article argues that an important reason for the lack of advancement in introducing greater accountability is that issues such as workers’ rights, the environment and human rights are often discussed together. A new approach, one that is solely focused on protecting the environment, is desirable especially with the rise of new capital exporters. In 2013, China detached the issue of the environment from those of workers’ or human rights, in its attempt to tackle overseas corporate wrongdoing. Its environmental guidelines are worth emulating, but it lags behind in areas such as human rights. Analysing the position of the environment among the other fields involved in the debate, we first identify several theoretical reasons for detaching the former from an international law perspective. We then provide a comparative functional analysis of four extraterritorial corporate social responsibility Bills – those in the United States (2000), Australia (2000), the United Kingdom (2002) and Canada (2009) – all of which were rejected by their national parliaments. This lends additional support to the thesis that including the environment with other targeted fields stands in the way of home countries improving the environmental behaviour of their overseas corporations.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACTS OF TRANSNATIONAL CORPORATIONS IN THE GLOBAL SOUTH
2018
The variety of contributions of the present volume spans a broad range of issues linked to transnational capital interests and their impacts on the environment. They show how environmental impacts are invariably intertwined with many other dimensions. This includes global capital dynamics; colonial heritages, culture and structures; the ever larger scale of industrial and extractive processes; plundering and unequal ecological exchanges; public health, as well as the use of physical and symbolic violence; the role of national states and the power of multilateral institutions in promoting TNCs investments; the destruction of pre-capitalist or small-scale systems of production; and of course the intensity of social conflicts, the original political subjectivity and ways to struggle associated with these conflicts as well as state and corporate strategy to repress them. These dimensions linked to environmental impacts are captured by various theoretical frameworks, for example Harvey’s accumulation by dispossession, ecological economics’ “natural capital”, environmental justice and environmental racism, or sociology of the arts. It shows, in our opinion, how environmental destruction, and its ever- increasing intensity and extensiveness linked to TNCs capital accumulation, cannot be thought of in an isolated manner or through a framework that is “purely” ecological. The complexity of the interrelation between environmental and social dimensions of TNCs interests and activities evidenced here show the dialectical character of social and ecological problems and invites us to continue analyzing the destruction of the environment from both a radical and multidisciplinary approach.