Environmental justice, the right to breathe clean air

The environmental justiceEnvironmental justice on air quality issues is crucial to ensure that all communities, especially those in areas of high traffic and industrial activity, a...
Read more movement is an unstoppable process in the world. Humanity is defending itself and raising its own voice to improve and maintain a safe and healthy environment that does not limit people’s future.

While our well-being depends fundamentally on our lifestyles, a new kind of collective consciousness has been gaining momentum since the 70s thanks to the legal recognition of the importance of environmental justice. This concept promotes the basic right of people to enjoy and maintain a clean, safe and healthy environment. This is particularly significant for those communities that experience greater inequality due to their proximity and exposure to sources of pollution.

Environmental justice defends social and environmental equity using legal obligations. It appeals to the undeniable human right to enjoy the common good that is the environment and the services provided by ecosystems. The negative impacts that the environment suffers, such as lacking healthy air, directly affect many human groups, as well as the biodiversity of the planet’s ecosystems.

Environmental justice combines an ongoing social movement and administrative regulations adopted by government agencies that have been incorporated into legislation. It is a binding tool that, with its legal resolutions, based on environmental law at local, regional and global levels, determines those injustices against the common good that must be remedied.

Such environmentally harmful actions represent a failure to uphold the responsibilities set by current legal obligations. They threaten the health of people and their environment; and impede equitable and sustainable social progress.

What is environmental justice?

Environmental justice is a legal tool that seeks ways to address and correct inequalities in the distribution of environmental benefits and burdens between different social groups. This approach focuses on ensuring that all people, regardless of ethnicity or socio-economic factors, have equal access to a healthy and safe environment.

Employing environmental justice allows all people, regardless of their socio-economic status or geographical location, to guarantee themselves the right to enjoy a healthy environment and not disproportionately suffer from the negative effects of pollution.

Similarly, advocating for environmental justice promotes equity, community participation, accountability and the implementation of inclusive and fair policies that promote greater well-being for both people and the planet.

Why is environmental justice important?

Disputes over environmental alterations that harm people’s living conditions are increasing day by day. Through such social demands, recognition is being achieved for every person or community’s right to enjoy a healthy environment. These legal measures seek to hold governments and companies accountable for hindering basic human rights, such as breathing clean air.

Environmental justice is based on the guiding principle that everyone has the right to protection against environmental harm and risks. Each country and region has its own laws and regulations to guarantee citizens a cleaner and healthier environment. It is conceived as “a social right, a new paradigm that gives certainty and balance on the distribution of positive or negative environmental implications in a given area”. (Ramírez S., et al., 2015).

Principles and objectives of environmental justice

Human rights have a great ally in environmental justice as everyone, regardless of social class, gender, ethnicity or geographical location, should have equal access to the benefits of living and working in healthy environments.

Among the common-good rights that include accessing the most fundamental natural resources is enjoying clean air, since its unrestricted availability ensures the health and well-being of individuals and their communities.

The essential principles pursued by environmental justice are based on the following:

Inclusive participation

The active participation of communities in decision-making processes affecting their environment is essential to avoid committing environmental injustice. This includes those effects of environmental pollution that know no boundaries, such as alterations in air quality.

Communities have the legal right to be consulted. They must also have access and transparency to consult the information in a clear way in order to understand the environmental risks to which they are exposed and the possible measures to be developed to mitigate them.

Prevention and precaution

The precautionary principle is a crucial consideration in implementing environmental justice. In situations where there is a potential for damage to the environment or human health, preventive measures are required, even if full scientific certainty is not available.

In the case of access to clean air, this principle is proactively applied to reduce sources of air pollution before its negative effects are felt by communities.

Responsibility and accountability

Environmental justice establishes that public institutions as well as private and business organisations are responsible for the environmental impacts that they cause through carrying out their activities. Anyone who contributes to environmental degradation must take responsibility for the damage caused and take remedial or mitigating measures.

The environmental justice movement and climate change

Since the Paris Agreement was signed in December in 2015, the number of climate lawsuits filed each year against fossil fuel companies, whose emissions affect the air quality that citizens breathe, has tripled. This has been confirmed by Oil Change International, a research, communication and advocacy organisation that works to uncover the true costs of using fossil fuels and facilitate the transition to clean energy.

The connection between the environmental justice movement and climate change is both close and complex.  Just as the environmental justice movement that faces social inequalities brought about by environmental damage, the effect of climate change is amplifying environmental inequalities and thereby deteriorating social conditions for many people.

Phenomena such as rising temperatures, the growing emergence of natural disasters (hurricanes, floods, droughts, etc.) and rising sea levels are already harming the most vulnerable communities. Similarly, these populations, often living in areas more prone to such impacts or that lack protective infrastructure, are less resilient or less able to adapt or recover from the devastating effects of these phenomena, which increases their conditions of poverty or exclusion.

Similarly, the gap between rich and poor countries is widened by the unequal availability of natural resources and the necessary technologies to help mitigate the effects of climate change.

International agreements, although a comprehensive solution, often do not have sufficient financing mechanisms or technology transfer to support the countries most vulnerable to climate change. These agreements depend almost exclusively on the willingness to compromise and the responsibility of the signatory countries.

The economic interests of industry and large corporations often prevail over environmental problems. While there is strong pressure on governments to relax environmental regulations, stricter policies such as those advocated by environmental justice are needed. Its mission is to defend, in addition to the environment in general, the social dimension of the population most vulnerable to the injustice of a global change to which it has not contributed. In addition, special attention should be paid to air quality, as its deterioration is one of the leading causes of global mortality.

Impact on vulnerable populations and communities

Low-income communities and ethnic minorities are often the most exposed to environmental pollutants. In turn, they live in environments where they do not have green spaces or guaranteed access to basic natural resources such as clean water. This underlines the importance of environmental equity, which aims to ensure that all people have equal opportunities to enjoy a healthy environment.

Environmental justice focuses not only on preventing environmental damage, but also on repairing damage already caused, ensuring that affected communities receive the compensation and support needed to recover and have a healthy environment.

These communities exposed to environmental risks from living in the vicinity of industrial plants, landfills or urban areas with high population density develop higher rates of incidence of respiratory diseases from exposure to air pollutantsAir pollution is one of the greatest environmental challenges of our time. The air we breathe contains various harmful substances of a chemical, physical o...
Read more. Their health deterioration is mainly caused by exposure to fine particles (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀), sulphur dioxideSulphur dioxide (SO2) is a colourless gas with a pungent odour that causes an irritating sensation similar to shortness of breath. Its origin is anthropoge...
Read more, nitrogen oxides and ozone.

Contaminants whose presence contributes to increase asthma, bronchitis, chronic lung disease and heart disease. They are primarily affected by the most vulnerable population such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. In children, it has been confirmed that they increase infant mortality, causing, in turn, the development of cognitive problems and the deterioration of their neurological development.

Examples of environmental injustice

Unfortunately, there are already many environmental situations, in different parts of the world, where communities have had to resort to environmental justice to claim their right to a healthy environment.

Some of the most relevant examples worldwide are:

Oil extraction in the Ecuadorian Amazon

The waste dumped by the oil company Texaco (later acquired by Chevron) in the Ecuadorian Amazon between 1964 and 1992 led to the contamination of soil, air and water in a large jungle area. Its environmental alteration was suffered by indigenous and peasant communities, in the form of respiratory diseases and other cardiopulmonary diseases. They filed a complaint in 1993 for the violation of their right to live in a healthy environment.

Despite the evidence of the lawsuit known as the “Chernobyl of the Amazon”, it has been one of the longest and most emblematic lawsuits of environmental justice in Latin America; and it is still open.

Oil refinery in Richmond, California

Emissions from a large refinery operated by Chevron since the beginning of the 20th century, in the California city of Richmond, are the cause of serious air pollution problems. They cause a high incidence of respiratory diseases in the local population; suffered mostly by the communities with fewer resources (African American and Latino) that live near the oil plant.

The toxic cloud that emerged from an explosion at the refinery in 2012, affecting thousands of residents, prompted local communities and environmental defence groups to come together to sue the oil company for violating air quality regulations. While the oil company has undertaken to improve the refinery in order to reduce its toxic emissions into the atmosphere, there are ongoing disputes to this day.

Mining city in the Peruvian Andes

In 2020, environmental justice played a role in the recognition of the violation by the government of Peru of the rights of the inhabitants of La Oroya, an Andean community considered to be one of the most polluted places on Earth. Pollution from mining activity in its vicinity alters air quality through the emission of metals such as lead, arsenic and cadmium. Its particles are transported by the air and deposited in high concentrations in outdoor spaces such as parks, streets and school playgrounds, with children therefore being the most affected by their ingestion.

“The Inter-American Court’s decision is the strongest and most comprehensive judgement of any regional human rights court to date. Not only does it provide long overdue environmental justice for the people of La Oroya in Peru, it also establishes a vital precedent that will be used by concerned citizens, communities, courts and defenders of environmental human rights all over the world.” David Boyd, United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights and the Environment.

Air quality in New Delhi

People in the federal capital of India, breathe one of the worst air qualities in the world. This situation is the result of a combination of factors, such as agricultural burning, traffic, high industrialisation and emissions from thermal power plants. Air pollution has led to a public health crisis in which millions of people live every day exposed to dangerous levels of fine particles (PM_2.5 and PM₁₀).

This was why the NGO Environmental Pollution (Prevention and Control) Authority and a public representative filed a lawsuit in 2015. They called for immediate measures to reduce air pollution and protect the health of citizens. The lawsuit included calls to close industrial plants, reduce the use of private vehicles and stop crop burning.

While India’s Supreme Court has forced measures such as banning older diesel vehicles, promoting cleaner fuels and restricting agricultural burning, pollution remains a chronic problem in Delhi, and communities continue to push for more effective solutions.

Chemical pollution in Ontario, Canada

The Canadian city of Sarnia is home to one of the largest concentrations of petrochemical facilities in North America, earning it the nickname “Chemical Valley”. Air pollution in this region has been a serious problem for decades, affecting mainly the indigenous Aamjiwnaang communities, whose residents suffer from high rates of asthma and other respiratory problems due to their continued exposure to air pollutants.

In 2011, indigenous communities supported by environmental organisations filed a lawsuit against industries and the government of Ontario for violating their rights to a clean and safe environment for their health. The case highlighted disparities in the distribution of air pollution and a lack of protection for the most vulnerable populations.

The ruling forced intensification of air quality surveillance in the region, as well as measures to reduce industrial emissions. However, indigenous communities continue to demand a long-term solution and greater regulations.

In conclusion, while some environmental justice cases have made extraordinary advances in defending the common good that is the environment, others reflect the difficulty of implementing long-term structural changes. However, environmental justice remains an important front line for ensuring the right of all people to enjoy a healthy environment.

Challenges and limitations of environmental justice

Environmental law is the foundation on which the promotion of environmental justice is based. Through laws and regulations, standards are established whose application seeks to prevent environmental damage and, in this way, protect natural resources. These are decisions that, taken in the legal field regarding the environment, are essential to ensure that human activities do not harm the environment, thereby safeguarding people’s health and maintaining the well-being of ecosystems and their habitats.

However, these laws and regulations are not always implemented in an equitable manner, which can lead to situations of blatant environmental injustice.

Environmental justice faces several challenges and limitations that hinder the achievement of its core objectives. The following are some of the main problems:

Social and economic inequality

 Marginalised and low-income communities are the most vulnerable to the impacts of environmental degradation, such as air pollution. This occurs because they are usually located in the vicinity of factories, roads and landfills, areas where pollution levels tend to be higher.

The scarcity of economic resources and access to political power of these communities limits their ability to demand better environmental quality. Moreover, prioritising economic interests over public health in many government policies perpetuates and even increases such inequalities.

Unequal access to information

For environmental justice, access to accurate and transparent information on environmental risks and air quality is not always equitable. In many regions, the most affected communities do not have the education or socio-economic resources to access and understand the extent of the environmental problems they face.

In addition to not having the essential information, they also do not have the means to understand the applicable legislation and the legal avenues to seek environmental justice to promote actions that address their environmental risk situation.

Absence of participation in decisions

Decisions on environmental policies, land use or the location of industrial facilities are often made without proper consultation among local communities, especially the most vulnerable.

The exclusion of the voices of affected communities from planning and decision-making processes is a significant barrier to achieving environmental justice. Without adequate representation, policies can favour economic actors to the detriment of local communities, thus contributing to aggravating inequalities and thus exposure to environmental risks.

Failures to enforce environmental laws and regulations

While many countries have environmental laws and regulations, they are not always enforced effectively.  Without effective implementation of environmental protection policies, polluters do not suffer the legal consequences of their actions that harm the environment.

Intergenerational inequality

Many young people with their appeals to environmental justice are showing that future generations have no say in the environmental decisions that are made today. However, these generations will be the most affected by environmental problems resulting from current pollution, such as deterioration in air quality and the effects of climate change.

A legacy for future generations that is already manifesting itself as a serious environmental problem caused by short-term policies, currently in place, which prioritise economic development and growth over sustainability.

Demonstrating the causation of environmental damage

In many situations, it is difficult to prove the damage that pollution causes to the environment and the health of people and ecosystems. Added to this complicated situation are the long-term effects involving various sources of pollution and the time it takes for damage to communities to manifest, making it a challenge to present as admissible evidence in a court of law.

In short, environmental justice is a fundamental tool for achieving a more equitable and sustainable society; it not only focuses on environmental protection, but also promotes equity in access to natural resources and social justice. However, it faces multiple challenges and constraints that are interconnected and can only be overcome if legal frameworks, social participation and the promotion of greater awareness of the close link between environment and human rights are strengthened.

How does Kunak support and improve environmental justice?

To strengthen environmental justice, a technology company specialising in environmental monitoring solutions such as Kunak Technologies, provides tools to measure and manage air quality in an accurate and accessible way. It is a way of promoting equity by contributing to the reduction of environmental and, at the same time, social inequalities, thanks to the low cost of air quality sensors used in monitoring stations.

Kunak’s contribution to environmental justice is based on principles linked to environmental justice:

Real-time air quality monitoring

With portable monitoring stations that can be installed in multiple locations, including the most remote and inaccessible areas such as oceans and volcanoes, it is possible to know precisely the levels of pollution and their sources.  Fundamental step to identify inequalities in exposure to pollutants. Vulnerable communities, who often lack information on air quality, can use this data to demand corrective action or fairer policies through environmental justice.

Access to environmental data

Kunak technology democratises access to accurate, real-time environmental information. In this way, affected communities, non-governmental organisations and local governments can make informed decisions based on the evidence that is based on the analysis of the collected data. This is especially valuable in areas where monitoring infrastructure did not previously exist or in those that had difficulty in achieving it, such as marginalised regions or communities with fewer resources.

This happened in Córdoba (Colombia), in the villages near the Las Palmeras mine, where neighbourhood pressure resulted in plans to install an air quality monitoring network to determine the impact of mining operations of coal extraction.

Social empowerment

By offering low-cost and easy-to-implement solutions, Kunak makes it easy for any community to collect their own air quality data. This reduces dependence on local authorities or large corporate entities, empowering citizens to take action and advocate for their right to live in a healthy environment.

Early detection of environmental risks

Early detection of critical environmental events, such as high levels of air pollution that may create immediate risks to public health, facilitates the implementation of preventive or corrective measures quickly, by having a technology that activates alerts in real time.

Transparency and accountability

International recognition and approval criteria for Kunak smart cartridges provide reliable measurement control throughout the entire life cycle of each sensor. This makes Kunak AIR the most sustainable and transparent solution for environmental air quality management.

Companies and governments that implement these monitoring systems not only comply with environmental regulations, but can also be more accountable to communities that demand a healthy environment. This supports environmental justice by encouraging institutions to be more accountable and transparent.

Implementation of public policies

To address the causes and consequences of air pollution demanded by environmental justice, through the implementation of public policies, Kunak air quality monitoring technology is a perfect ally for strict compliance with established legal regulations.

In short, by detecting social inequalities in exposure to air pollutants, Kunak facilitates immediate and effective action, thanks to access to data and informed decisions that can be made based on its analysis, to mitigate the effects of environmental pollution. Reducing emissions of pollutants allows us to meet international air quality standards that guarantee a healthy environment for people.

References

• Chowkwanyun, M. Environmental Justice: Where It Has Been, and Where It Might Be Going. Annual Review of Public Health Volume 44, 93-111, 2023. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-publhealth-071621-064925
• Ramírez, S. J., Galindo, M. G., & Contreras, C. (2015). Environmental justice: Between utopia and social reality. Cultural, 3(1), 225-250. https://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1870-11912015000100008&lng=es&nrm=iso&tlng=es
• Banzhaf H.S., Ma, L., and Timmins, C. Environmental Justice: Establishing Causal Relationships. Annual Review of Resource Economics Vol. 11:377-398, 2019. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-resource-100518-094131
• Schlosberg, D. and Collins L.B. From environmental to climate justice: climate change and the discourse of environmental justice. WIREs Climate Change Volume 5, Issue 3, 359-374. May/June 2014. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.275