The case for environmental justice

With much of the climate change debate centring on the developed world, it can be easy to forget that many of the countries hardest hit by global warming will be in the Developing World. That’s a point Oisín Coghlan, Director of Friends of the Earth Ireland, is keen to make.
“The way climate change appears to be changing rainfall patterns means you get not only more rain in some places, and storms, but you also get more drought,” he says. Among the communities at increasingly great risk are those in sub-Saharan Africa, where rain failures have become more common, and also people living in those countries which were worst affected by 2004’s Indian Ocean Tsunami.
There is a vicious circle in prospect. Over the next few decades, these countries will also need to develop their industries. They will thus be polluting more, and the impact on the world’s climate will be all the more disastrous if the developed world continues to consume resources at its current rate. “We’re going to have to reduce our pollution per person, and not just to save the climate,” says Coghlan, “but also to allow Indians and Ethiopians and Brazilians their fair share of pollution, their fair chance to develop.
“We talk about a concept called environmental justice,” he adds, “as opposed to simply social justice or simply environmental conservation. It’s about giving – or allowing – people a fair share of the earth’s resources and environment.”
Oisín says that Irish politicians may think Irish people are afraid of the changes that greater environmental awareness would involve, but the opposite, he believes, is the case.
“The point about climate change is that it is coming anyway, whether we like it or not. The question is do we manage it properly? Compared to Britain, Ireland is so behind, even in terms of the conversations we’re having. In Britain there’s a sort of auction politics, based on who’ll do the most on climate change. It’s really forward-looking, but we haven’t anything like that.”
With a general election approaching, Oisín is convinced that environmentally friendly solutions can be offered to the problems the country faces. “The individual components that will solve the climate crisis, from an Irish perspective, are also things that will improve and solve other problems. It is about addressing real issues now, like transport, energy, housing regulations.”