College Voices
The Importance of Corporate Accountability for Climate Change
Climate change is real and an inevitable threat; a prospective catastrophe that could cause irreversible damage. According to a report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, urgent action is essential.
If necessary change does not occur, there would be extensive flooding, severe heat, and poverty. There are more greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere than ever before, and the damage done to the Earth is turning into a real-life horror story.
Why is there barely any action being taken to fight climate change? Why are we not doing more to protect the Earth? The answer is simple: corporate negligence and placing profit over everything else.
According to the Carbon Majors Report, merely 100 companies are responsible for more than 70% of the worlds green house gasses emissions since 1988. These companies produce nearly 1 trillion tons of greenhouse gasses.
The companies that emit the highest amount of greenhouse gasses include ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BP. As stated by the report, if this pattern continues and fossil fuel extraction occurs at the same rate, within the next 28 years, there could be catastrophic repercussions.
Corporations use their power and influence to conceal the truth about climate change and attempt to convince the public they are not at fault. These corporations have a major role. They are essentially the ones that determine the Earth’s future.
Unfortunately, there is a rift between short-term profitability and reducing emissions. Of course, corporations will always choose profit. Corporations need to be held accountable.
Regulations need to be placed to force companies to reduce the amount of emissions they produce and there needs to be an improvement on transparency—our futures depend on it.
Major fossil fuel producers hold a lot of responsibility for climate change. Most of these companies worked to end regulations that would reduce emissions, usually by spreading false information about climate change. Many acknowledge the adverse effects of climate change, yet they continuously prefer to prioritize profit.
The Union of Concerned Scientists released in 2018 an in-depth analysis of eight fossil fuel companies, known as the Climate Change Accountability Scorecard. The companies study includes BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Shell, Arch Coal, CONSOL Energy, and Peabody.
In the report, they confirmed that these corporations “continue to spread climate disinformation and have failed to adequately plan their businesses for a low-carbon world.”
The major fossil fuel companies must take responsibility for their actions. They need to end the lobbying against regulations and climate change policies and stop contributing to the public confusion about climate change.
These companies should adopt business models that reduce emissions; a world free of carbon pollution is possible. Everyone needs to do their fair share in attempting to prevent the effects of climate change.
Yet, real change will not occur unless major corporations are held accountable and face consequences for the climate-related damage they have caused.