Tomorrow’s Challenges

The 21st century has seen a spate of technological advancements which have played a
major role in global industrialization. Unfortunately, these developments have caused a rise
in climate change. The problem occurs when industries utilize such technology in large scale
production while ignoring the impact of the production processes in the environment. They
do this in total disregard to laws on corporate responsibility towards the environment.
According to Tol1, global warming- one of the indicators of climate change, is the greatest
environmental problem. Its effects spill over into every aspect of life, from our health, to
economic stability. Sadly, the countries that face the damage most are third world countries
whose industrial sectors lack relatively sophisticated industrial machinery found in developed
countries2. It follows; industries and factories all around the world need to practice business
ethics and have the knowledge of the potential risks their emissions create in the
environment.
Several laws address the need for social responsibility in industries, with respect to
their responsibilities in protecting the environment from pollution. These laws are supposed
to help the industries shift further from the normally required set requirements, towards more
moral- based standards3. Environmental law provides the basic guidelines for every
corporate entity to follow in their dealings. Such laws would be more effective if the
managers of these industries joined hands with the legislature and individual citizens, to
influence laws that aim at preserving the environment4. It is worth noting that several steps
have already been taken to enforce these laws against corporations that neglected their
responsibilities towards protecting the environment from damage.
However, does the law on corporate responsibility towards the environment really
apply to large multinational corporations? Not infrequently, large business establishments
make a bargain between implementing the laws or paying the fines upon breaching the laws,
whichever involves a lower cost. For example, a large industry may choose to rather cause
environmental damage and pay the fines, than spend more money in treating the waste it
releases to the environment. The companies take advantage of little or no legislation covering
the matter to that depth. Another area where laws on environment seem to have failed is in
their failure to issue a requirement for industries to join hands in environmental law-making
processes. As a result of that, many industries still lack the drive to support environmental
protection initiatives. Notably, when corporate entities join other groups in the society to
participate in lobbying for more far- reaching environmental legislations, the rate of damage
to the environment caused by industrial activities would decrease drastically. Lastly, laws
requiring corporate responsibility for the environment are not uniformly applied. The
situation is so bad that there are some areas regarded as ‘pollution havens”5. Some countries
like the U.S totally disregard laws on climate change. It follows; industries in the U.S may
easily release harmful waste to the environments without getting penalized. These challenges
hamper the global fight for ensuring environmental protection by business entities.
To address these issues, legislators need to increase the scope of their legislations, to
include all possible violations of environmental laws by big industries. Legislators also have
to understand how different industries emit pollutants so that the ensuing legislations may
1
Richard Toll, “The Economic Effects of Climate Change.” The Journal of Economic Perspectives, vol. 23, no. 2,
2009, pp. 29–51.
2
Richard Toll, “An Analysis of Mitigation as a Response to Climate Change. Report. Copenhagen Consensus
Center”, 2018, 5-19.
3
Conrad Lashley, “Business ethics and sustainability, Research in Hospitality Management”, 6:1, 2016, 1.
4
Michael Hoffman, “Business and Environmental Ethics”. Business Ethics Quarterly, 1991, 6.
5
Kolk Ans, “The Social Responsibility of International Business: From Ethics and the Environment to CSR and
Sustainable Development”. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 2016, pp. 23-34.
cover all instances of pollution6. Lastly, legislations should contain mandatory provisions for
all industries to fully embrace environmental protection laws in their production systems7.

6
Juan Moreno, “Understanding the industrial contribution to pollution offers opportunities to further improve
air quality in the United States”, National Academy of Sciences, vol. 116. 2019, 19769
7
Lashley (n 5), 5.