Climate and Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice is the principle of fairness and equal rights for all people regardless of race, color, ethnicity or culture, specifically with regard to environmental risks and benefits. The right to a safe, healthy, and sustainable environment is now widely recognized. At the same time, it has been well established for decades that people of color, Indigenous people and the poor and marginalized are disproportionately affected by environmental dangers such as toxic pollution, heat and climate-related extreme weather events such as floods and droughts. “Sacrifice zones” exist where polluting facilities are located, toxins are deposited without protection, other factors impact health and little or no aid is provided including after destructive events. Such environmental injustice is found systemically on levels from the local to the global. In this program, leaders in the environmental justice movement offer presentations on current issues, report on actions being taken and make proposals for the way forward. The ethics of environmental justice will be considered from diverse religious perspectives and speakers will describe what faith communities are doing and can do to engage the triple crisis of the climate emergency, loss of biodiversity, and pollution—to achieve a just transition.