The Utopian Goal of Attempting to Deliver Environmental Justice Using Sea

Abstract

Environmental justice is a contested concept. However, it became a high-level policy objective in the United States and, internationally, policy advocates and academics have identified environmental justice as a fundamental part of sustainable development. Policy appraisal, in particular Strategic Environmental Assessment (SEA), has been cited as a main tool to deliver environmental justice policy. Scotland, a devolved government within the UK, made a high-level policy commitment to environmental justice and linked its delivery to SEA. To evaluate how this was put into practice, this paper analyses Scottish SEA documents produced between 2003 and 2007. The study found that SEA practice in Scotland was not directed towards empirical assessment of environmental justice. More fundamentally, because assessments always reflect specific values, there is no incontestable way to represent environmental justice or injustice empirically. Therefore, this paper argues that environmental justice remains a Utopian goal, with no indisputable means to be achieved.

Environmental Justice and Sustainability Impact Assessment: In Search of Solutions to Ethnic Conflicts Caused by Coal Mining in Inner Mongolia, China

“…Walker finds that although practices are evolving there is a little routine assessment of distributional inequalities, which should become part of established practice to ensure that inequalities are revealed and matters of justice are given a higher profile [41]. On the other hand, Mclauchlan and Joao oppose the use of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to deliver environmental justice, partly because "a direct focus on the environment requires that factors associated with environmental justice are not central to SEA" [14].…”

“…Mclauchlan and Joao oppose the use of strategic environmental assessment (SEA) to deliver environmental justice, partly because "a direct focus on the environment requires that factors associated with environmental justice are not central to SEA [14]." That was exactly the case with some projects that conducted EIAs.…”

“…For example, environmental impact assessment (EIA) has been regarded as an important measure to control environmental impact in many countries, and some governments, such as those of the United States and Scotland, have attempted to use environmental assessment tools to deliver environmental justice [14]. However, environmental assessment tools in theory and practice appear to be inadequate when sustainability, not just the environment, is the subject for assessment.…”

Emphasising enhancement in all forms of impact assessment: introduction to a special issue

“…It should be noted that assessments will always reflect specific values. McLauchlan and João (2011) argue that what is considered environmental justice (or injustice) will always depend on interpretation. 'For example, building a coal fired power station could arguably help to contain energy prices and thus ensure less people are susceptible to fuel poverty.…”

Would you do SEA if you didn't have to?– Reflections on acceptance or rejection of the SEA process

“…The same plan or programme may also be subject to SEA and other appraisals: transport strategies in Scotland require SEA, a transport appraisal and an equality impact assessment (McLauchlan and João 2011). Using the metaphor of a jigsaw, Pope et al (2013) note the ambiguous relationship between different forms of impact assessment, questioning how well they fit together.…”