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 Environmental justice
Our Environmental Justice Programme
aims to address the disproportionately high impacts of
environmental degradation and pollution on economically
and politically disadvantaged communities. The programme
brings together issues of social, economic, and
political marginalisation of minorities and low-income
communities with concerns over environmental
degradation and pollution hazards in communities and
regions. The programme addresses three forms of inequity
– procedural, geographic and social inequity.
Procedural Inequity -
This issue addresses questions of fair treatment: the
extent that governing rules, regulations, and evaluation
criteria are applied uniformly. Examples of procedural
inequity are "stacking" boards and commissions with
pro-business interests, holding hearings in remote
locations to minimise public participation, and using
English-only material to communicate to non-English
speaking communities.
Geographical Inequity
- Some communities and regions receive direct benefits
(such as jobs and tax revenues) from industrial
production, while the costs (such as the burdens of
waste disposal) are sent elsewhere. Communities hosting
waste-disposal facilities receive fewer economic
benefits than communities generating the waste.
Prolonged droughts caused by global warming due to
climate change affect developing countries more than
developed ones.
Social Inequity -
Environmental decisions often mirror the power
arrangements of larger society and reflect the
still-existing racial and socio-cultural biases
globally. Institutional racism has influenced where to
site noxious facilities and has let many poor and
vulnerable communities to become "sacrifice zones." The
impacts of global warming affect poor communities more
than affluent ones.
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