Multi-level:
End business with polluters
Withhold a corporation’s license to pollute and abuse by blacklisting polluting corporations, especially those that are currently under public scrutiny or investigation.
What does this look like?
Ban corporations that are currently the subject of legal investigations or found guilty through such investigations (sub-nationally, nationally, regionally, or internationally) for allegations related to fraud, misconduct, or human rights abuses from receiving any privilege or incentives, including but not limited to subsidies, stimulus funds, tax breaks, and access to policymaking spaces and negotiations.
International institutions such as the U.N. bodies and the World Bank or other financing and investment bodies cease relationships with or blacklist these corporations.
These measures should also be taken toward polluting corporations and industries in general, in addition to applying them immediately to entities under legal scrutiny.
End the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings,[1] which grades economies not on the strength of their environmental or corporate accountability policies, but effectively pressures countries to deregulate.
Cut ties and contracts with such corporations at all levels, including local-level partnerships that allow polluters to “greenwash” their image and buy goodwill among community members.
Implementing the measures of the liability roadmap
Decision-makers and movements at all levels should keep the following in mind when implementing the measures laid out in this roadmap:
Enacting these policies and measures is simply the first step to holding polluting and destructive industries liable: There will be much work for government officials, decision-makers, activists and civil society alike to do to ensure these measures are fully implemented and move us toward the transformative change the world needs.
Liability should be applied to all industries and corporations that make business decisions that contribute to climate change and its impacts, or that cause harm to people and nature. In addition to the fossil fuel industry, these industries include but are not limited to agribusiness, forestry, mining, and the energy sector.
Many of these measures could equally apply to State-owned corporations. Because the national contexts and unique needs vary from country to country, it is worth considering where to apply and how to adapt the principles and measures listed in the liability roadmap to address State-owned polluting corporations. Factors to consider when doing so could include but are not limited to the degree of democratic control over the entity, role and use of funding from oil/gas revenues, and responsiveness of the entity to transition to regenerative, renewable energy sources.
Measures implemented at the national level should support and reinforce, rather than contradict, measures implemented at the sub-national and local, and vice versa.
1 “Ease of Doing Business rankings,” Doing Business, The World Bank Group, accessed August 25, 2020, https://www.doingbusiness.org/en/rankings.