The Elusive Saviours
Chapter 9: Conclusion
The central question of this book is whether international
environmental management can be left to the voluntary activities of transnational
corporations. Multinationals themselves have given their own answer: they
are opposed to international, binding rules which identify them as a separate
category of company and throw up restrictions.
There are however several strong arguments against
leaving the initiative to the transnationals. We can summarize these under
five headings:
-
the large measure of involvement transnational corporations
have in, and the even larger responsibility they have for, environmental
pollution
-
the possibilities available to transnationals for avoiding
stricter environmental legislation by moving operations elsewhere
-
the imperfections in the development and dissemination
of their environmental technologies
-
the general inadequacy of international corporate environmental
management
-
the tendency to support only generally formulated and
non-binding codes of behaviour while there are several examples of the
effectiveness of binding international legislation.
This calls for international, binding environmental
rules for transnational corporations as a separate category within the
business community.
However, it is too much to expect of the international
political community that this will happen. The far-reaching international
regulations presently applicable to trade - the new GATT
and the future WTO - will not have a positive
influence on the environmental behaviour of transnationals.
Comments and questions are welcome:
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