Environmental Justice

In the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the right to health has been listed from the very beginning. Currently, discussions are ongoing on whether the right to a clean environment should be positively added. Administrations at all levels commit to Environmental Justice – from the US Government to the EU down to the city level, e.g., in Berlin.

Environmental Justice would be a state where all citizens, regardless of their socioeconomic or demographic background, live in a healthy environment. Research studies have already shown that lower-income groups, coloured citizens, or citizens with immigration backgrounds are disproportionally disadvantaged. (more about environmental justice)

3 Steps to Environmental Justice

Monitor air quality
Environmental Justice would start with paying the same attention to pollution levels in every district or neighbourhood. Limited financial resources of the community must not cause inadequate monitoring.
Consider Cumulative Impacts
Other burdens – such as bad housing conditions or insufficient access to health care – need to be considered in addition to pollution levels for understanding the cumulative impact, which as a combined force worsens the living conditions. (more about cumulative impact)
Contextualised information for actionable insights
From this contextualised information, actionable insights can be derived: prioritising countermeasures and campaigns, guiding risk groups to reduce their exposure, and turning abstract data into relevant citizen information to enable everybody to protect her-/himself and the environment by adjusting their behaviour.