DO GOVERNMENTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS SUPPORT GREEN WASHING? ACTING AS A GLOBAL PARTNER IN THE GLOBAL CLIMATE CRISIS


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Çetin M., Çelik D., Duman S.

Hacettepe Üniversitesi İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi Dergisi, ss.23-50, 2023 (Hakemli Dergi)

Özet

The climate crisis constitutes the first main agenda of the world with two important consequences that have become the 'new normal': extreme weather events that surround the whole world and pandemics. All micro/macro and national/international institutions and organizations have significant duties in preventing and reversing the crisis. However, while these tasks place a heavier burden on individuals and underdeveloped countries with the least share in the crisis, the production sector, which is at the root of the problem and turns the wheels of the linear economy, evades this responsibility. Moreover, companies that are forced to transition to a circular economy within the framework of the 'Green Deal' due to the climate crisis not only evade legal responsibility by resorting to 'greenwashing', but also manage to turn this situation into profit by appearing 'environmentalist' with a counterattack. Hence, the effectiveness of international organizations such as the EU and the UN is becoming more important in preventing the climate crisis. However, considering the half-century-long process of transformation to an environmentally sustainable economy from the 1970s to the present and the progress made, the effectiveness of these most important organizations in preventing the climate crisis in terms of legal coercion and sanctioning power has been questioned; these organizations have even created a feeling in the public that they are distracting the urgent climate agenda by supporting greenwashing under the guidance of multinational companies engaged in green washing.