Transnational Corporations and Global Environmental Politics

Abstract

Transnational corporations (TNCs) have an enormous impact upon the global environment. Indeed, at first glance, it is clear that they consume much of the earth’s resources and produce huge quantities of waste as well. As Elliott (1998: 123) observes: ‘The contribution of [TNCs] to global pollution and to resource depletion is significant.’ Moreover, the largest 500 TNCs ‘generate more than half the greenhouse gas emissions produced annually’ (Thomas 1994: 19). Quite fundamentally, if we did not have TNCs spreading new forms of resource extraction, production and technological development around the world, then we could well not have many of the global environmental problems that we are experiencing today (and therefore, the global environmental politics that surround these problems).

The author would like to thank the participants at the LSE seminar, and in particular the editors of this volume, for their helpful comments and suggestions.