Question:
Discuss about environmental management for sustainable development?
Answer:
Introduction
The economy of the world greatly depends on the exploration, production and distribution of the oil and natural gas for fulfilling the natural demands associated with the energy. This particular demand in different countries around the globe is increasing day by day as most of the developing and developed nations in the world are largely dependent on the contributions obtained from the production and distribution of oil and natural gas. It is a matter of fact that natural gas and oil are the essential natural resources as well as the key indicator of measuring the economic success and wellbeing of the country (Anderson 2012). According to the world energy outlook, 2009, the prediction made by the International Energy Agency (IEA) is based on the basic global demands of oil, which will increased, to 90 millionbarrels per day by 2020. In addition, different results from the surveys and statistics have confirmed that the demand related to the energy is continuously increasing and the factor is further influenced by the robust economic growth in India and China. On the other hand, the political climate in the Middle East has become to be highly uncertain.Also it is acknowledged that there are different kinds of environmental impacts to the air, water, and soil due to the exploitation and production of oil and natural gas. These impacts signal the possible environmental risks to the different industry and developing the chances of accidents to be happen from the specific activities. Almost, all the stages of oil and gas production and the exploratory activities associated with the process leads to the pollution of different types. This particular essay is developed with the aim of discussion the impact of these activities particularly on the soil pollution and developing key arguments to effectively mitigate the degrading impacts.
Basic Discussion
Based on the introductory understanding, it is clear that the environmental management is necessary for reducing the degrading outcomes to the overall environment of the social communities. In order to raise a solution in the form of critical analysis, it is essential to acknowledge the background of the concept (Miller 2010).
In case of oil, it plays the pivotal role for the society in terms of satisfying the needs of the society. Besides being the crucial element as the energy source of the world, petroleum is a product of oil that constantly growing relevant roles in the people lives. Nevertheless,on the contrast, the oil industry is accountable for the major potential hazards for the overall environment, by not only polluting the soil, but also affecting other levels of the environment consequently. Therefore, pollution is the most dangerous and widespread consequence of the impacts of oil and gas industry. Here in this case, it is worthy to mention that the exploitation, production, and delivery processes associated with the oil and natural gas industry require drilling, refining, and transportation of over 800 dissimilar chemicals comprising of most number of oil and petroleum products. This certain activity creates large amount of solid wastes and gas emissions to pollute and destroy the soils dangerously (Renewable fuel standard 2011).Also, the scenario clearly indicates the upcoming challenges to be faced globally related to fulfilling the energy demands of the world while strictly reducing the degrading impact to the environment and conforming to the best practices as possible.
It is clear that the exploration, production, and distribution related to the oil and natural gas operations have their potentials to bring various impact to the social, economic, and environmental aspects (Carnero 2015). The level of these particular impacts on the overall environment depend on the different stages of the process, complexity and size of the project, characteristics and details of the respective environment, and the effectiveness of pollution prevention techniques, planning, and control mechanisms associated with the overall operation. Therefore, it is a necessary task for this essay to organize a discussion related to these particular impacts on different directions. The social, cultural, and economic environment of the global economy are highly induced by the exploration, production, and distribution of oil and natural gas, and due to that, certain changes occur to the particular aspect (Dernbach and Mintz 2011). The extent of these changes majorly affect the traditional lifestyles of the indigenous people. Apart from that, some other major changes have been overserved due to the impact. The unplanned settlement and exploitation of the natural resources highly change the patterns of the land resulting the immigration and in-migration of the remote population due to the availability of increased opportunities and access to different benefits (Freedman and Jaggi 2010). On the other hand, both the social-economic and socio-cultural system alter due to the process. Income differences, new and increased employment opportunities, differences in the per-capita income, inflations, etc. are the major changing factors as part of the social-economic system. Similarly, the social and cultural norms, beliefs, and practices along with the difference in social, cultural, and organizational structures are the factors that are exposed to the major changes as part of the socio-cultural aspect.
Apart from the identified changes in the social and economic environment, exploitation and production of oil and natural gas largely affect global atmosphere to generate different kinds of atmospheric issues (Gökçekuş, Türker and LaMoreaux 2010). These issues are significantly attracting the interests of the different government authorities and industry levels from the different territories of the world. For this very reason, the different authorities are providing increasing amount of focus on the use of superior technology and systematic procedures related to the exploitation process in order to reduce the emissions have provided high amount of efforts. In order to minimize the degrading impacts to the atmosphere due to the exploitation and production procedures, it is essential to understand the nature of emissions and their influences to both the local and global issues contributing to the environmental imbalance (Kahraman and Baig 2010). The potential impact of oil and gas are already documented in the structured manner. According to the investigation, it can be acknowledgedthat the major pollution to the soil is caused by the different oil refineries during the production and exploitation process. This particular process requires the large amount of water and energy to produce huge quantities of wastewaters and releasing hazardous wastes and gases in the same time. This particular factor largely hampers the soil by the way of generating solid waste. On the other hand, the oil and gas industry also play the positive role in generating handsome amount of profits and generating job opportunities in different regions. The governments of different countries can avail the significant amount of tax revenues and royalties by the impact of the process. Therefore, the prevention practices must need to be adopted by considering the proactive environmental strategies to mitigate soil pollution and build the sustainable environment (Leemans and Solecki 2013). Additionally, it should need to mention that the aquatic and terrestrial systems are also being harmed by the overall impact to significantly affect the ecosystem of the global environment.
According to the understanding developed related to the potential impacts of the production and exploitation of oil and natural gas, it can be clarified that the overall environment is affected in the context of the protection policies and regulations. Considering the environmental assessment related to the potential impacts on the environment, different types of management measures are simply taken and performed independently within the framework of the HSE management system (Levidow and Psarikidou 2011). This particular assessment is highly important for taking the careful management actions, as the process helps to identify the significance of an impact occurring from the exploitation and production of natural gas and oil to the national context. Therefore, it can be understood that the management activities must need to be performed and developed with sincere approach with the help of the some significant strategies associated with the environmental management. It is a necessary and one of the most significant concerns to protect the environment for our future generationbased on different international and national level of policies and regulations. This regulatory framework must need to be described, as the framework exists within the current infrastructure to ensure the achievement of the future aim by regulating the protection (Morelli 2011). In this case, it is worthy to mention that different countries come up with different sets of regulations while having their dissimilar structures related to the regulations and approaches. Therefore, the major discussion is significantly based on the existing approaches of the environmental management presenting in the oil and natural gas industry, which are majorly influenced by the Guidelines for the Development and Application of the Health, Safety, and Environmental Management System (HSE-MS) (Natural Gas Production 2014).
It can be observed strictly in the oil and natural gas industry that the procedures and approaches are strictly committed and integrated to the HSE-MS, and also, recognizes the adherence to the international standard models, such as International Standards Organization ISO 9000 for ensuring the quality management or ISO 4000 for maintaining the environmental management. Therefore, it is an obvious fact that there is the major existence of the regulatory framework in the international regimes for examining the approaches and practices related to the oil and natural gas production, exploitation, and delivery process and adopting them as per the appropriateness(Sorrell 2010). Here, it is the responsibility of the competent national authority to implement a strict regulatory control and enforcement according to the regime. The national authorities in this case implement the international requirements through the primary legislations to develop an infrastructure to mitigate the deleterious impacts. Furthermore, the regulations and guidelines are consequently refined by the different standards of the framework with including the factors like consents, determinations, prescription of the qualitative controls related to the emissions, etc. All of the process are developed and organized for the purpose of ensuring the achievement of the goals in the significant and effective manner. In this case, it is needed to mention that the consents are developed in order to organize and direct the activities for the achievement of the results regarding the formal Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) (Sund and Lysgaard 2013). In case of soil, the inappropriate combination with the ground water due to the production process releases solid wastes and different other harmful chemicals to which are consideredsolventwith the soil. Therefore, the fertility of the soils is wasted and polluted to harm the natural balance of the environment. These particular challenges can be mitigated with the appropriate handling of the solid wastes, which cannot be recycled. On the other hand, the choice of appropriate treatment should need to be done with the classification according to the guidelines of the regulations. Other possible treatment should need to include the controlling of the landfill disposal, burning in cement kilns, immobilization of chemicals, etc. (Thiele 2013). Additionally, the proper monitoring process and performance reporting system should need to be present and implemented by the adequately funded by the responsible authorities to make sure the positive workability of the international legislations.
On the other hand, the discussion should also need to be raised regarding the involvement of international and regional frameworks, as these conventions are providing basic principles to the national governments to allow them to implement such arrangements through their national legislations. Some of the important international conventions related to maintaining the environmental safety are Basel Convention, UN Law of the Sea, Vienna Convention for the Montreal Protection, Biodiversity Convention, etc. (Tomlinson 2010). In this case, it is essential to mention that the European Union policy along with some other environmental legislations are typical based on the some broad approach-based perspective. However, the concept of Goal-Setting is introduced recently and the future conventions will be develop to satisfy the needs of such concept. With the help of this discussion, it can be verified that the importance of national laws within the national framework is very high due to the workability of the environmental regulations (Gökçekuş, Türker and LaMoreaux 2010). The logistic and transportation systems are also needed to be configured critically with conducting the technical surveys and establishing the training organizations with standards associations.
Conclusion
In the concluding paragraph, it should need to mention that the increase in demand for the oil and natural gas exploration is largely caused by the different involvement of the global corporate world. This why the corporate management principles are necessary for conducting the environmental management. The corporates should need to develop the corporate strategies and environmental objectives facilitating the effectiveness of the adaptation of environmental health and safety management system (Dernbach and Mintz 2011). Therefore, not only the government authorities, but also the major business organizations must need to include the critical environmental issue to their business decisions to be able influence the formal management system and leading towards the sustainable development of the global environment.
References
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