Climate and social justice in Eastern and Southern Europe: The social nature of climate change | INOGOV Working Paper Series (original) (raw)

Environmental and Social Justice in Eastern and South Europe

I am dealing in this paper with the question of environmental and climate (in)justices in Eastern and South Europe (ESE). At first, I will refer the theoretical pillars of environmental justice and my statement is that there is an expanding sphere concerning environmentalism which has grounded the theory of climate justice. The environmental justice has been expanded to climate justice, because it increasingly addressed that the environmental and social conditions provide for individual and community needs and functioning and justice depends on the environmental conditions. It has been put forward here that populism could bring closer the meaning of environmental and climate related disasters to the people’s everyday lives and experience. In the next part of this paper the connection of climate justice and social problems In ESE have been analyzed. The investigation elaborated here is based on a very important initiative called Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) and its Environmental Justice Atlas. I will focus two on main environmental and climate injustice caused challenges: the first one is the situation of the Roma communities in ESE, and the second one is the emerging case of fuel or energy poverty. It has been raised here that an elitist populist regime, for instance Hungary, how can damage the case of environmental and climate justice with instituted biopower. I will conclude this paper that we need to (re)enhance the social nature of environmental problems and this will strengthen the environmental consciousness in ESE. The relating discourse of environmental and climate justice in ESE is need to be based on environmental identities constructed on ethnical and social solidarity. Finally, we should have a look on the biopolitical structure of modern State.

Ecopopulism and Environmental Justice in Eastern and South Europe

Environmental Justice in the Anthropocene Symposium 2017 , 2017

I am dealing in this paper with the question of environmental and climate (in)justices in Eastern and South Europe (ESE). At first, I will refer the theoretical pillars of environmental justice and my statement is that there is an expanding sphere concerning environmentalism which has grounded the theory of climate justice. The environmental justice has been expanded to climate justice, because it increasingly addressed that the environmental and social conditions provide for individual and community needs and functioning and justice depends on the environmental conditions. It has been put forward here that populism could bring closer the importance of environmental and climate related disasters to the people’s everyday lives and experience. In the next part of this paper the connection of climate justice and social problems in ESE has been analyzed. The investigation elaborated here is based on a very important initiative called Environmental Justice Organizations, Liabilities and Trade (EJOLT) and its Environmental Justice Atlas. I will focus on two main environmental and climate injustice caused challenges: the first one is the situation of the Roma communities in ESE, and the second one is the emerging case of fuel or energy poverty. It has been raised here that an elitist populist regime, for instance in Hungary, how can damage the case of environmental and climate justice with instituted biopower. I will conclude this paper that we need to (re)enhance the social nature of environmental problems and this will strengthen the environmental consciousness in ESE. The relating discourse of environmental and climate justice in ESE is need to be based on environmental identities constructed on ethnical and social solidarity. Finally, we should have a look on the biopolitical structure of modern State.

Environmental justice and Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe

Environmental Policy and Governance, 2009

Environmental injustice and the social exclusion of Roma communities in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) has roots in historical patterns of ethnic exclusion and widening socioeconomic inequalities following the collapse of state socialism and the transition to multi-party parliamentary governments in 1989. In this article, we discuss some of the methodological considerations in environmental justice research, engage theoretical perspectives on environmental inequalities and social exclusion, discuss the dynamics of discrimination and environmental protection regarding the Roma in CEE, and summarize two case studies on environmental justice in Slovakia and Hungary. We argue that, when some landscapes and social groups are perceived as ‘beyond the pale’ of environmental regulation, public participation and civil rights, it creates local sites for externalizing environmental harms. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.

ENVIRONMENTAL INJUSTICES IN EUROPEAN CLIMATE HOTSPOTS

Sociologie Românească, 2019

This paper starts from the observation that development projects that create various forms of environmental injustice in Europe are an integral part of the process of biospheric expulsions, that is of pushing out groups from adequate land, water or air, as described by Saskia Sassen (2014). Apart from the environmental, socio-economic and health-impacts of ecologically destructive projects, there is an added dimension of concern that has been less obvious in the past, but tends to become increasingly pronounced in a warming world. Is it possible that accumulating environmental inequalities and forms of injustice can create new and “unnatural” vulnerabilities to the projected climate change impacts? The first question that we tackle is whether environmental justice conflicts in Europe tend to take place disproportionately in climate hotspot areas, which are geographic spaces with above-average social sensitivity, potential vulnerability, potential social impact, potential environmental impacts or response capacity (ESPON, 2011). The second question concerns the distribution of different characteristics of projects and of their associated conflicts in climate hotspot vs. non-hotspot areas. The final goal is to establish, at a preliminary level, the emergence of a climate edge in Europe, a spatial configuration in which vulnerability to climate change impacts is shaped by processes of biospheric expulsion, as postulated at a general level by Sassen. For the analysis, the most current data on environmental justice conflicts (444) from the Environmental Justice Atlas and ESPON climate impact projections, mapped on the Climate Adapt platform, are used. The expected result is to provide a preliminary description of the postulated climate edge.

From the Problem of Environmental Justice to Climate Justice

Sustainability, Conservation and Ecology in Spatial Planning and Design, 2022

The concept of environmental justice, which was only in the discourse of indigenous and poor communities or marginalized groups until a short time ago, has turned into a global problem with the changing climate and is now being studied under the name of climate justice. Although it is expected that changing conditions, climate, people who hold power and wealth, wrong or incomplete policies applied, and sometimes even lack of politics, will affect all people equally in every corner of the world in the 21st century, it is clear that this is not the case. This injustice has become more visible in the right to be represented in decision-making processes, being the voice of neglected minority groups, system-based inequalities in social and economic fields, and intra- and inter-generational justice. The benefits and costs related to climate change (environmental degradation, drought, decrease in freshwater resources, health, etc.) are unevenly distributed. Climate justice, which is one of the pursuits of environmental justice, and issues that played an important role in shaping this movement are discussed in this report. Particularly in the environmental context, it should be taken into account that there is a clear injustice between groups that cannot be treated equally and equitably. Although the concepts of climate justice and environmental justice differ in terms of their origins, their scope and goals are similar. In this respect, both approaches to justice produce solutions to ensure sustainable social justice by protecting nature, climate, and people. These two concepts have been tried to be explained in line with their principles and scopes.

We are the limitś performing climate justice commoning in the Czech Klimakemp

Geoforum, 2022

Socio-environmental and climate movements indicate the urgency of 'doing' what is just in all socio-ecological relations and in the present. Attempts to bridge various movements defending commons around the world aim to transgress boundaries of thinking and acting for justice. Our aim is to propose a counter-hegemonic vision of climate justice as politically performative, i.e. enacting experimental spaces for more equalitarian relations which disrupt 'capitalocentric' imagination. We view justice as a dynamic process rather than a normative project, being enacted in repetitive events and practices which both reproduce and transform what is accepted as just. To illustrate our point, we are examining the;theory in praxis' of the first Klimakemp in the Northern Bohemia region of the Czech Republic 2017, a constitutive moment for the environmental and climate justice movement in Central and Eastern Europe. Based on engaged participant observation of this movement, we identify-three key performative aspects of camping for climate justice 1) Building the camp as action infrastructure 2) Enacting new political subjectivities as 'investments risks' embodying the limits to mining and 3) Commoning intersectional relations of care and solidarity.