Environmental Justice

Definition:
Environmental Justice refers to “the goal of promoting justice and accountability in environmental matters, focusing on the respect, protection and fulfilment of environmental rights, and the promotion of the environmental rule of law.”^[1] However, from an activist viewpoint, it can also be seen as “a social movement to further policy and cultural changes that support social justice and environmentalism, broadly defined, connecting issues of race, class, indigeneity, gender, citizenship/nation state, and sexuality with environmental equity”^[2]. In general, “most visions of environmental justice focus on power and powerlessness”^[3], because environmental injustice is often enacted through pre-existing inequalities and uneven power relations. It is also closely linked to climate justice, defined as “a global movement for justice in addressing the historical dimensions, current policies (or lack of) regarding sea-level rise, ocean acidification, increasing intensities related to drought and wildfires, etc., and future implications of massive carbon emissions and their interrelated impacts on ecological systems and human communities”.^[4]

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^[1] United Nations Development Programme (2022), “Environmental Justice: securing our right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment”, (https://www.undp.org/rolhr/justice/environmental-justice)

^[2] Julie Sze (2020), Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger, Berkeley: University of California press, 141.

^[3] Julie Sze (2020), Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger, Berkeley: University of California press, 6.

^[4] Julie Sze (2020), Environmental Justice in a Moment of Danger, Berkeley: University of California press, 141.