H. Protecting the environment is the legal obligation of enterprises

my country's laws clearly stipulate the legal obligations of enterprises to protect the environment, which is also an important responsibility of enterprises to the society. For example, the "Environmental Protection Law of the People's Republic of China" stipulates: "All units and individuals have the obligation to protect the environment, and have the right to report and accuse units and individuals that pollute and damage the environment." It also stipulates that "all enterprises and institutions must pay full attention to preventing pollution and damage to the environment in the site selection, design, construction and production of all enterprises and institutions. When carrying out new construction, reconstruction and expansion projects, an environmental impact report must be submitted. The design can only be carried out after the environmental protection department and other relevant departments examine and approve it; the facilities for preventing pollution and other public hazards must be designed, constructed and put into production at the same time as the main project; the discharge of various harmful substances must comply with the standards stipulated by the state. Units that cause pollution and other public hazards to the environment shall formulate plans and actively control them in accordance with the principle that whoever pollutes will control them.” Another example is Article 22 of the Water Pollution Prevention and Control Law: “Enterprises shall use raw materials with high utilization efficiency, Clean production processes with less pollutant emissions, and strengthen management to reduce the generation of pollutants”, and other individual legislations on pollution prevention and natural resource protection have similar provisions, such as the Law on the Prevention and Control of Air Pollution, the Law on the Prevention and Control of Water Pollution, "Marine Environmental Protection Law", "Solid Waste Pollution Prevention and Control Law", "Environmental Noise Pollution Prevention and Control Law", "Water Law", "Land Management Law", "Mineral Resources Law", "Fisheries Law", "Forest Law" , "Grassland Law", "Wild Animal Protection Law", "Water and Soil Conservation Law", "Desert Prevention and Control Law", etc. In the specific articles, the terms of the subject of environmental legal responsibility are expressed as "enterprises and institutions that discharge pollutants", "enterprises and institutions that cause serious environmental pollution", "pollutants", etc. Obviously, my country's laws stipulate that pollution prevention and control are mainly based on Enterprises are the objects of legal regulation. In addition, the General Principles of my country's Civil Law also stipulates that those who violate the state's regulations on protecting the environment and preventing pollution and pollute the environment and cause damage to others shall bear civil liability in accordance with the law. And this is an aggravated, no-fault legal liability, that is, it is different from general civil liability in terms of liability determination, burden of proof, and fault determination, and it pays more attention to the protection of victims.

  The obligation of enterprises to protect the environment is also becoming the trend of international environmental protection. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan first proposed a new concept of "Global Compact" at the World Economic Forum held on January 31, 1999; on July 26, 2000, the Global Compact was officially launched. The purpose of the Global Agreement is to make the Global Agreement and its principles part of corporate business strategy and business strategy, to promote cooperation among key stakeholders, and to build partnerships that contribute to the achievement of United Nations goals. In other words, the Global Agreement seeks to promote the movement of responsible corporate citizenship, so that enterprises can become an important force in meeting the challenges of economic globalization and solving globalization problems. Annan called on company leaders to join a global agreement to join UN agencies, workers and civil society in support of the nine principles of human rights, worker protection and environmental protection. Among them, the 7th principle requires companies to take precautionary strategies against environmental challenges; the 8th principle requires companies to actively take greater responsibility for environmental protection; and the 9th principle encourages companies to develop and promote environmentally friendly technologies. It can be seen that the last three principles in the Global Agreement are closely related to the environmental protection of enterprises. Since the Global Accord is a call-to-action, not a mandatory corporate social responsibility campaign, the influence of the Global Accord depends entirely on the willingness of companies to recognize and implement the Global Accord. In the case of China, this international innovation has received a warm response from many Chinese companies. On April 12, 2002, Chen Jinhua, president of the China Enterprise Confederation and the China Entrepreneurs Association, called on the Chinese business community to attach importance to, support and participate in this activity. a social responsibility.