What is Environmental Justice? Sometimes environmental justice may seem like a complex issue. But the principles of environmental justice are pretty simple. Living in a clean and healthy environment is everyone’s right.

Environmental justice is based on the notion of social justice, equality and a healthy environment for all. In the UK, Europe and across the world, the most vulnerable people with the least power and money see these rights denied on a daily basis. Yet, whilst they are most likely to face environmental injustice, they are least likely to be included in making the decisions that tackle these issues. In urban areas poverty means fewer choices about environmental matters - when those in power do not listen to the poorest people, there are many negative consequences.

Working on environmental justice involves tackling poor environmental conditions, natural and built, from a social justice perspective. In essence it means working to ensure everyone, especially vulnerable communities, get equal access to the benefits of a healthy environment.

Capacity Global works specifically with people and communities in urban areas, who suffer most from environmental injustice, to ensure their voices get heard. We work with people on local environmental issues and work that tackles global challenges like climate change. Our work is effective because we collaborate with diverse partners and networks. We also ask questions that get to the heart of issues, and we work directly with the people that suffer the most from living in poor neighbourhoods. Because of this, Capacity Global is able to develop research, share knowledge and help provide solutions that challenge inequalities and provide resources that create healthy urban environments.

New The Price of Race Inequality: The Black Manifesto 2010
The black Manifesto illustrates support for better environmental justice policies and more benefits from investment in green jobs and low carbon communities. Capacity Global co-wrote the report and supports the manifesto. Click here to find out more about race and environmental justice - what the political parties need to know.
Download: black_manifesto_race_inequality

Maria's blog on Environmental Justice

Capacity's Environmental Justice: Research Projects

Environmental Justice Think Piece
Defra commissioned Capacity Global and the Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) to develop a think piece on Environmental Justice for their third sector strategy. The paper was published on Capacity's and Elf's website, asking for views and recommendations on the EJ Think Piece. This consultation is now closed. Thank you for your responses.
Download EJ Think Piece

A Fairer Place? Assessing Urban Environmental Equity
Sustainable Urban Environment - Metric Models and Toolkits (SUE-MOT), a consortia of academic, industrial, government and community parterns has developed a framework to help urban decision-makers examine the environmental equity implications of proposed urban developments in the UK.
Download: Environmental Equality Framework

Environmental Justice - Making the Links
Commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, Capacity Global is working with the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Westminster to establish what environmental justice means to communities, policy makers and academics.  This report aims to provide policy level learning on the connections between environmental justice, social inclusion, sustainable development and equality.

Mapping Common Ground
A cross-sector workshop organised alongside the UK Environment Agency, this session facilitated a debate between academia, government, business and non-government organisations on the links between social policy and environmental issues.Download Report.

Capacity's Environmental Justice Reports

Capacity Global produces a range of Environmental Jusice reports covering issues at a local, national and international level. If you would like to order a copy of a report email: resourcecentre@capacity.org.uk or you can download the reports for free from our website. PDF's use Acrobat Reader, click here to download Acrobat. 

So what is Environmental Justice? Capacity Global Briefing Paper, July 2007
Download: what_is_environmental_justice.pdf

NGO Leaders Meeting on Democracy, Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development
This short background note is intended to help stimulate discussion at a half-day Non-Governmental Organisations (NGO) Leaders meeting on democracy, environmental justice and sustainable development on 26th October 2009.

Community Capacity Building:  Creating a Better Future Together
Local Economic and Employment Development (LEED) Edited by Antonella Noya, Emma Clarence, Gary Craig. Capacity Global wrote the chapter on environment and community capacity building.

Capacity's Environmental Justice: Training

Green Collar Jobs - The TEN Project
Capacity's Ten project was brought about by two main objectives. First, to encourage diversity within the environment sector (built and natural).  Second, to inspire people from diverse backgrounds to work for an environmental organisation. Capacity has set about recruiting ten trainees who will receive training and gain work experience in the environment sector over a period of two to twelve months. The TEN project will track the progress of each intern, documenting the personal and organisational transformations that arise in a sector known for it’s cultural exclusivity.

Capacity's Environmental Justice: Policy and Advocacy

Re-launch of the Environmental Justice and Race Equality in the European Union (EJ.EU)
The report below, EJ.EU was initially launched during the European Year for Equal Opportunities in 2007. It finds that the Race Equality Directive (2000/43/EC) may present an opportunity for equality and anti-discrimination legislation to be used to legally tackle environmental injustices. The Directive bans direct and indirect discrimination on grounds of racial or ethnic origin.

The report has had an impact on environmental and equality campaigns. Based on the study, public pressure groups have begun to use equality and anti-discrimination legislation in an environmental context. Earlier this year, Hounslow Race Equality Council (Hounslow REC), represented by Gita Parihar of Friends of the Earth, challenged the government’s proposals to develop Heathrow airport. They argued that the government had failed to assess whether noise pollution from the airport would disproportionately affect the local ethnic population.

As a result, the government has produced an Equality Impact Assessment in connection with the consultations on the expansion of Heathrow Airport. The Assessment considers the potential impacts of proposals to develop the airport on groups as regards to race, gender, disability, age (specifically children and older people) as well as the impacts on low income groups.

National legislation adopted to transpose the Race Equality Directive varies significantly. But the general framework binds government authorities throughout Europe and creates enforceable rights and obligations. The report will therefore be particularly valuable for activists, lawyers and policymakers looking for new avenues to help represent the interests of people suffering environmental inequalities.

Environmental Justice in Europe - EJ.EU
This groundbreaking programme of work is designed to tackle environmental inequality by improving access to environmental justice across Europe. Environmental Justice in Europe (EJ.EU) provides a forum for information, discussion and research that encourages European Union institutions to integrate environmental equality into policy and law.  EJ.EU is currently exploring the possibility of using European ‘discrimination’ laws to improve quality of life for those communities most vulnerable to the impacts of environmental degradation. 

Race and Environmental Justice - what the political parties need to know...

Race Equality Election Forum at the House of Commons. The Reverend Jesse L. Jackson Senior will be the guest of honour at the forum, which is hosted by the 1990 Trust and its newly formed Roots Research Centre. 

The election forum will examine the key areas of importance for race equality, ahead of Britain’s next general election. There will be a cross-party panel discussion, which will include representatives from the main political parties and race equality organisation leaders.

The forum discussion will contribute to the development of the Race Equality Manifesto - an analysis of the central issues surrounding race in Britain. Capacity Global will be writing the Environment section of the manifesto report.

The Race Equality Manifesto is a partnership initiative led by the 1990 Trust, Operation Black Vote, Equanomics UK and Just West Yorkshire. Contributors include: the Afiya Trust, JCORE, the Runnymede Trust, NUS Black Students Campaign, Urban Forum, Encounter, Friends of Al Aqsa, the Society of Black Lawyers, the National Black Police Association, the Northern Ireland Council for Ethnic Minorities (NICEM), The Bristol Black Development Agency, Oxfam, Black Mental Health UK, Capacity Global, the Steve Biko Housing Association, Black arts organisations and a wide range of other third sector organisations. 
Click here to read more

Press Release - Coalition for Access to Justice for the Environment (CAJE)

Capacity Global as a member of the Coalition for Access to Justice for the Environment (CAJE) urges the Government to address the recommendations in the Jackson Report.
Click here to download press release (14 January 2010)

How climate change affects people in the UK and how can we best develop an equitable response?

This seminar was organised in collaboration with the Joseph Rowntree Foundation and Local Government Association (LGA) and held on 30th November 2009, London. The seminar’s aim was to  inform ideas about potential future research funding opportunities through the Living with Environmental Change and other research programmes, building on existing research being commissioned by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation on the social justice implications of climate change.
Click here to download the report

Capacity Endorses the Grey to Green Campaign

The green information gap: mapping the nation's green spaces calls for a single, shared, information resource – a kind of atlas – to help piece together the different elements of the nation’s green infrastructure.  This call is supported by 15 national organisations. As part of Capacity's work on the urban environment, Capacity endorses Cabe's grey to green initiative. Click here to see why we must map green infrastructure.