The Cambridge Handbook of Environmental Justice and Sustainable Development

Intersecting forms of oppression, including subordination based on race, class, gender, and indigeneity, produce environmental injustice and unsustainable development.

Sumudu A. Atapattu (Edited by), Carmen G. Gonzalez (Edited by), Sara L. Seck (Edited by)

9781108470001, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 1 April 2021

500 pages
18 x 26 x 3.5 cm, 1.21 kg

'The incontrovertible value of this very timely book is in how it compellingly and thoughtfully tells us what we should do to stop irreversible ecological harm. Anyone who wants to find out how environmental degradation intersects with individual and group oppression, and what can be done to achieve just and sustainable solutions must read this book.' James Thuo Gathii, Wing-Tat Lee Chair in International Law and Professor of Law, Loyola University School of Law, Illinois

Despite the global endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals, environmental justice struggles are growing all over the world. These struggles are not isolated injustices, but symptoms of interlocking forms of oppression that privilege the few while inflicting misery on the many and threatening ecological collapse. This handbook offers critical perspectives on the multi-dimensional, intersectional nature of environmental injustice and the cross-cutting forms of oppression that unite and divide these struggles, including gender, race, poverty, and indigeneity. The work sheds new light on the often-neglected social dimension of sustainability and its relationship to human rights and environmental justice. Using a variety of legal frameworks and case studies from around the world, this volume illustrates the importance of overcoming the fragmentation of these legal frameworks and social movements in order to develop holistic solutions that promote justice and protect the planet's ecosystems at a time of intensifying economic and ecological crisis.

Foreword by Boaventura de Sousa Santos
1. Intersections of environmental justice and sustainable development: framing the issues Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen G. Gonzalez and Sara L. Seck
Part I. Frameworks: 2. The indivisibility of human dignity and sustainability Erin Daly and James R May
3. Environmental justice in the global south Usha Natarajan
4. Indigenous environmental justice and sustainability Deborah McGregor
5. Racial capitalism and the anthropocene Carmen G Gonzalez
6. Human rights and socio-ecological justice through a vulnerability lens Louis J K-otzé
7. Social-ecological resilience and its relation to the social pillar of sustainable development Barbara Cosens
8. Environmental justice and sustainability: the United States experience Robin Morris Collin and Robert W. Collin
Part II. Case studies
strategies, challenges and vulnerable groups: 9. The role of public interest litigation in realizing environmental justice in South Asia: selected cases as guidance in implementing agenda 2030 Shyami Puvimanasinghe
10. Children's rights or intergenerational equity? exploring children's place in environmental justice Mona Paré
11. Managing water as life in Guatemala: lessons on environmental justice from Totonicapán Patrícia Galvão Ferreira and Mario Mancilla
12. Indigenous ancestors. Recognizing legal personality of nature as a reconciliation strategy for connective sustainable governance Jacinta Ruru
13. Water justice and the social pillar of sustainable development: the case of Israel Tamar Meshel
14. Gender, indigeneity, and the search for environmental justice in post-colonial Africa Damilola S Olawuyi
15. Colombo international financial city: an example of un-sustainability and in-justice Lakshman Guruswamy, Joshua C Gellers and Sumudu Atapattu
16. Chemical pollution and the role of international law in a future detoxified Sabaa Ahmed Khan
17. China's cancer villages Quoc Nguyen, Linda Tsang, Tseming Yang
18. Colonialism, environmental injustice, and sustainable development: nuclear testing in the Marshall Islands Antonio Pigrau
19.The Vedanta (Niyamgiri) case: promoting environmental justice and sustainable development Stellina Jolly
20. De marginalizing the intersection of ecological and social disadvantage in South Africa: a critique of current approaches to dealing with historical injustice – the Tudor shaft case study Jackie Dugard
21. Sustainable mining, environmental justice, and the human rights of women and girls: Canada as home and host state Sara L Seck and Penelope Simons
22. Environmental justice, sustainable development and the fight to shut the Poletti power plant Rebecca M Bratspies
23. The indigeneity of environmental justice: a Dakota access pipeline case study Elizabeth Kronk Warner
24. Energy poverty, justice and women Lakshman Guruswamy
25. 'Energy without injustice'? indigenous participation in renewable energy generation Adrian A Smith and Dayna Nadine Scott
26. Climate justice and the social pillar in California's climate policies Alice Kaswan
27. Climate change-related eco-health considerations for environmental impact assessments in the Canadian Arctic Katherine Lofts and Kontantia Koutouki
28. Climate justice, sustainable development and small island states: A case study of the Maldives Sumudu Atapattu and Andrea C. Simonelli
Part III. Conclusion: 29. Afterword: toward a law and political economy approach to environmental justice Angela P Harris
30. Beyond fragmentation: reflections, strategies and challenges Sumudu Atapattu, Carmen Gonzalez and Sara L. Seck.

Subject Areas: Social impact of environmental issues [RNT], Environment law [LNKJ], International human rights law [LBBR], Comparative law [LAM], Environmental economics [KCN], Development economics & emerging economies [KCM]