Discharging environmental accountability in emerging economies: the case of the Nigerian cement industry

Environmental issues such as pollution and the adverse consequences they are having in climate change have drawn a global attention. The extant literature shows that environmental problems and the scale of consequences vary across developing and developed countries (Yale, 2005). A major issue within emerging economies has been the controlling of emissions, the rise of which has become unprecedented as the economies of these countries continue to expand. Prior work in Nigeria has illustrated a high rate of environmental pollutions led to by the expansion of oil extraction and other industrial activities (Hassan and Kouhy, 2013). In the last few years, the country has undertaken various initiatives, including the implementation of the Kyoto protocol, as part of reducing the greenhouse gas emissions. The extant literature has covered the impacts of such initiatives in the oil and energy sector (Hassan and Kouhy, 2013). However, the environmental impacts of other industries and the ways these industries are discharging their accountability have remained under-researched. The study adds to the literature by investigating how the cement industry - the second largest contributor to the socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria, (Mojekwu, 2013) - has been discharging its corporate and environmental accountability. Drawing on institutional theory, the study unfolds the types of strategies that Nigerian cement companies have adopted to report their carbon emissions and discharge environmental accountability.