Essay Sample on Environmental Regulations, Standards, and Agreements

Introduction

Mother Earth is facing immense contemporary environmental concerns, primarily because of the growth and development that is occurring in modern industries. Environmental problems such as air pollution, urban sprawl, depletion of the ozone layer, acid rain, and global warming are affecting animals and human beings on the planet. Degradation and exploitation of the environment have raised concerns at local, nations, and global levels. Different independent groups have launched initiatives to educate people on the essence of protecting the environment. Laws, regulations, and standards have been set in an attempt to control human activities that result in environmental problems. As discussed below, there are various government and global regulations, agreement, and initiatives aimed at protecting the environment which consequently affects private sector businesses.

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Government and Global Environmental Regulations, Agreements, and Standards

The United States has been at the forefront of the protection of the environment. In total, five main laws in the United States are aimed at protecting the environment. They include Clean Air Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act and Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act/Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (CERCLA/SARA) (Carnegie Mellon University, 2003). The Clean Air Act's primary objective is to improve human health, aesthetics, and agriculture. Also, the act focuses on the concentration of various pollutants from the surrounding. The RCRA act is aimed at managing transport, generation, storage and disposal of solid wastes. Safe Drinking Water Act has a tertiary objective of protecting underground water sources. Clean Water Act's focus is restoring waters sources into their best condition for fish and swimming. Lastly, CERCLA's goal is to clean up abandoned sites containing hazardous spills and wastes.

Globally, conventions have been organized to derive means through environmental problems can be combated. Countries worldwide have shown common interests which require addressing through global environmental agreements. For example, the UN international initiative has been pioneered to combat various forms of environmental problems. The Kyoto protocol in Japan was designed to combat greenhouses gases to the atmosphere. The Basel Convention was developed to control the transboundary movement of transport and disposal of hazardous wastes (Kummel, 1999). The UN, through the Bamako Convention, which prohibits the release of hazardous wastes or imports to Africa. Other Agreements such as the Pairs Agreement of 2015 were developed to combat climatic change to create a sustainable future with low carbon emission.

How Environmental Regulations Affect Private Sectors

Major environmental regulations are aimed at preventing the emission of hazardous and poisonous waste materials to the environment. Therefore, such regulations are likely to affect the private sector in terms of plant location, trade, employment, and productivity. For example, private industries lose their competence capabilities when regulation prohibit the release of states to the environment. Such laws do not have alternatives to how the waste should be handled. The odds for such industries experiencing expansion remain low. Another example is how private businesses may end up collapsing when imports and exports of certain products become effective. Private companies that manufacture polythene papers are likely to collapse when polythene bags production and export are banned. Hence, environmental regulations have many adverse effects on the private sector.

Conclusion

Finally, as seen above, laws, regulations, standards, and agreements have been put in place to combat environmental problems resulting from pollution and degradation. Also, the rules have considerable impacts on the private sector because it restricts expansion lowers competence by affecting plant location, employment, and productivity. While collective actions have been directed to correct the deteriorating environmental conditions, natural disasters have been striking in the form of cyclones, earthquakes, and floods. Such adversities can be related to humans' activities on the earth surface. As such, more laws and regulations should be imposed. However, they should consider the effects of the private sector and provide ideal measures to prevent private business collapse.

References

Carnegie Mellon University. (2013). "The Main United States' Environmental Law." Retrieved from http://environ.andrew.cmu.edu/m3/s7/us_laws.shtml.

Kummer, K. (1999). International management of hazardous wastes: The Basel Convention and related legal rules. Oxford University Press on Demand.