The focus of this project is to present the new setting of the globalized world and in particular the impact and responsibilities of MNCs. The case of Ogoniland’s environmental degradation has been investigated in depth in order to debate and clarify how MNCs can both strengthen and limit a country’s ability to secure sustainable development.
UNEP has made an environmental assessment of the pollution of Ogoniland. Three main stakeholders have been appointed to clean up the area and eventually foster sustainable development: the government, oil companies (the largest being Shell) and the local community. Four hypotheses leading to the answer of the problem formulation have been deduced from the theoretical framework. The theories are Dependency Theory by Samir Amin, Natural Resource Trap by Paul Collier, CSR – Corporate Citizenship and Stakeholder Theory by R. Edward Freeman. The hypotheses were then tested with the empirical evidence. The method is documentary and the primary empirical evidence stems from: UNEP’s report; the government’s official web pages; Shell’s webpage; media concerning MOSOP; Social Actions’ evaluations of the main stakeholders’ fulfillment of the recommendations. The investigation shows that the main stakeholders have not succeeded in fulfilling the recommendations from UNEP. It is furthermore unlikely that the environment in Ogoniland will be restored under the current conditions of diverging interests of the main stakeholders. The government is primarily interested in ensuring the best conditions for Shell in order to secure their oil revenues, which they are more dependent on than on taxation from their population. So as long as Shell does not live up to its commitment to being a corporate citizen and does not have the economic incentive to restore the environment, it seems unlikely that any real action will be conducted. Even more, the local communities seeks political autonomy and control of oil revenues, which might create a positive change in Ogoniland. However, the government is not interested in losing any control. There is, however, a slim chance that the threat of expensive court cases may compel Shell to restore the area. It seems that provided that Shell has enough economic incentive, or international pressure, they do have the capacity to restore the environment in Ogoniland.