Can new environmental impact assessment laws improve access to justice?
Environmental decisions have unequal impacts on human and ecological communities. Those who are impacted by these decisions often seek to be heard by decision-makers with the hope of correcting unequal, negative impacts (such as exposure to toxic pollution).
We call this Access to Environmental Justice.
We explain how Access to Environmental Justice connects insights from environmental justice, public participation, the rule of law, and access to justice and allows researchers to study the effects of environmental laws and policy in a way that matters to those affected.
Read this open access paper on the FACETS website.
Canada and British Columbia brought in new environmental impact assessment laws with goals of improving Access to Environmental Justice for decisions about major development projects (such as pipelines and hydroelectric projects).
In order to gain a better sense of whether these laws can make a difference to Access to Environmental Justice, we study the first few years of implementation to find out who is seeking to access environmental impact assessment processes and how they are being heard.
We find that a number of factors influence who is seeking to access environmental justice through environmental impact, such as:
· Geography (projects proposed in or near urban centres see lots of individuals accessing the process early on),
· The type of project (significant funding and engagement is concentrated in oil and gas projects),
· A change to the Canadian law now allows anyone to request an assessment and this is being accessed by many individuals and groups with some success.
These findings provide a foundation for further, more detailed study to fully evaluate whether Canada and British Columbia’s reforms are improving Access to Environmental Justice.
Read the paper — Access to Environmental Justice in Canadian environmental impact assessment by Thomas Gilmour and Jocelyn Stacey.
