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Highlights • The applicability of the parameters was tested on the pulp industry, in the south of the state of Bahia, Brazil. • The importance of different worldviews of social groups and cultures in the search for sustainability is emphasized. • Seven parameters for sustainability are provided to guide political decision-making in urban planning. • The applicability of the parameters was tested on the pulp industry, in the south of the state of Bahia, Brazil. • The outcomes show the limitations of certification schemes for sustainability like the Forest Stewardship Council. Abstract The search for sustainability, particularly in an urban context, is in full swing. Based on a review of mainstream environmental management and the critical environmental justice perspective, this analysis proposes that concepts of space, territory, and livelihood which are operating at the interface of the social and physical world, offer possibilities to understand urban and rural metabolisms in a global context. The second part of the paper focuses on the main obstacles to achieve sustainability, arguing that the underlying causes for conflicts between urban and non-urban traditional territorial livelihood metabolisms are not being adequately addressed. The challenges of implementing sustainability often involve dealing with dynamic contradictory processes with unpredictable outcomes. Therefore, sustainability should not be seen as a certain state of the society, but as a kind of structuring structure characterized by the necessity of permanent rearrangement. Finally, to make this finding more applicable, we present seven parameters to evaluate socio-spatial relationships as a dialectical cognitive framework for planning towards more sustainability and environmental justice. The application of these parameters has been tested on the "sustainable" pulp industry in Bahia – Brazil, which is often regarded as sustainable due to certification by the Forest Stewardship Council. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The landscape of Bogotá's low-income informal settlements reveals intense and ongoing conflicts between political agendas, socio-environmental needs and everyday practices. This paper presents the results of an interdisciplinary research project that used semi-structured interviews with practitioners, academics and community leaders to critically investigate the interactions between people and landscape in Bogotá. The paper aims to deepen the understanding of the social and ecological processes that are constantly intertwined in the occupation and appropriation of the landscape. Using the Limas Creek as a case study, the paper explores the technological constraints, governance structures, cultural values and community agency around the restoration of rivers and the implementation of green infrastructure in low-income settlements in Bogotá. The research highlights the need to explore the demands of co-production and its relation to the challenges of sustainable development. The paper demonstrates that, in addition to sustainable solutions to water management, there is also a need to develop strategies around education, landscape attachment and environmental awareness. This is seen as a first step towards the re-articulation of the relationship between people and water in the urban realm to ultimately guarantee environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• I examine the impacts of policies that strive to maximize conservation targets. • My analysis relies on fieldwork in Ugandan communities to study the impacts of fisheries policy. • I find that the attainment of conservation efficiency comes at the cost of reduced social equity. • I find that long-term sustainability is compromised when a policy prioritizes conservation efficiency while disregarding social equity. • I suggest that the "win–win assumption" be replaced by the acknowledgement of necessary trade-offs. Natural resource governance often grapples with the challenge of balancing conservation efficiency and social equity. While both objectives are essential, their persistent collision exposes an inherent dilemma. Suggesting that existing studies fail to grasp the depth of such dilemmas adequately, this paper examines the comprehensive impacts of natural resource policies that strive to maximize conservation targets. I hypothesize that (1) the attainment of conservation efficiency comes at the cost of reduced social equity and (2) the long-term sustainability of natural resource policy is compromised when it prioritizes conservation efficiency while disregarding social equity concerns. The empirical analysis draws on fieldwork in Ugandan communities to consider the impacts of a fisheries policy initiated by the government in 2015. A survey of 319 fishermen and unstructured interviews with eighteen elders on Buvuma Island in Lake Victoria reveal that while the new policy has considerably enhanced resource conservation, it has also intensified social inequities, and there are valid concerns about its long-term sustainability. Additionally, despite the new policy encountering substantial local opposition, a seemingly paradoxical consensus asserts that conservation success is only attainable with the same policy's implementation. In the conclusion section, this paper suggests that the common "win–win assumption," which implies misleadingly that conservation efficiency and social equity can always be simultaneously attained, should be replaced with the acknowledgment that trade-offs between the two objectives are often necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Participation of people in decision making and tackling complex problems where there is lack of consensus on the science and relevant values continues to be an important research topic. The 2015 Split Ladder of Participation offered a diagnostic and methodological framework cited in 162 papers. This paper addresses the question: What does a literature review of the Split Ladder of Participation reveal about engaging people in policy problems, effecting transformational change, and how can this diagnostic and strategic tool be improved? A systematic literature review revealed papers that disclose transformational change, or triple loop learning requires: strong social science; social and natural interdisciplinary science; and considerations of uncertainty in environmental science together with uncertainty of values and considerations of power. Policy problems with low levels of trust offer opportunities to engage interest and participation in their resolution. Governments over-utilizing methods limiting participation, may lead to lock-in. Focusing on complex, interconnected problems through participation creates an enduring policy and science, interdisciplinary innovation space. Recognizing participation that is plural, amorphous, and fluid draws attention to power, multiple stakeholder framings of complex issues, advances social learning changing values, norms, power, and the very ethics of science (where social and natural/physical scientists acknowledge and share their power with people), and ultimately advances environmental justice. • Problem diagnosis needs multiple actors. • Consensus on science needs to be unpackaged. • Zero loop learning can motivate participation. • Anthropocene problems need triple loop learning. • Triple loop learning can lead to plural solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rapid development of China's high-speed railway (HSR) has deeply affected the reorganization and reallocation of production elements, which has exerted a profound impact on the regional economic pattern. Existing research lacks attention to how HSR can impulse the regional pollution pattern. The operation of HSR serves a high-speed channel for knowledge spillover, which is an important mechanism to reshape the regional pollution pattern. Based on the data of 250 peripheral cities in China from 2004 to 2018, this paper utilizes a difference-in-differences model (DID) to investigate the impact of HSR opening on regional pollution gap, and provides a mechanism explanation from the perspective of knowledge spillover. It is found that the opening of HSR significantly helps to reduce the industrial pollution gap between HSR cities and central cities. The result remains unchanged after using instrumental variable method (IV) and a series of robustness tests. Heterogeneity tests show that the effect of HSR opening on narrowing the regional pollution gap is greater in the eastern region, areas with low pollution intensity and areas within the half-hour economic circle, and HSR service widens the pollution gap in the western region, areas with high pollution intensity and areas outside the one-hour economic circle. Further mechanism examinations reveal that HSR opening contributes to narrowing the regional pollution gap through knowledge spillover effects, and the knowledge spillover effects driving knowledge improvement to shrink the regional pollution gap is verified. This paper provides a new idea for the balanced regional development of cities in the aspect of environmental protection as well as empirical evidence for promoting environmental equity in China. • The HSR opening significantly helps to reduce the industrial pollution gap between HSR cities and central cities. • The effect of HSR opening on narrowing the regional pollution gap is greatly related to city factor endowments. • Both the direct and indirect mechanisms of knowledge spillover contribute to narrowing the regional pollution intensity gap. • Knowledge spillover effects of HSR opening driving knowledge improvement to shrink the regional pollution gap is verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the critical issue of decolonizing meanings within the context of the climate crisis and land-based adaptations, specifically focusing on Indigenous women's perspectives in Western Canada. The study focuses on the intricate relationship between Indigenous knowledge, culture, and the environment, emphasizing the unique insights that Indigenous women bring to the discourse surrounding climate change and adaptation. Drawing on the decolonial feminist research approach, community engagement, and participatory research methods, the paper highlights the diverse ways Indigenous women conceptualize the climate crisis and respond to the impacts of the climate crisis on their traditional lands. It critically examines the colonial legacies that have shaped environmental policies and interventions, often marginalizing Indigenous voices and perspectives. The findings advocate the importance of centering Indigenous women's knowledge and experiences in climate change discourse and policy-making. By decolonizing meanings, the paper advocates for a more inclusive and equitable approach to land-based adaptations that acknowledges the resilience and wisdom embedded in Indigenous land-based learning and practice. This research contributes to the ongoing dialogue on sustainable and culturally sensitive strategies for addressing the climate crisis, fostering a deeper understanding of the intersections between gender, Indigeneity, and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As resilience planning gains prominence in urban sustainable development, green infrastructures (GIs) are widely recognized as effective solutions to address climate risks and environmental challenges. While urban greening initiatives have multiple benefits, they can also lead to unintended consequences such as environmental injustice, increasing property values, and the displacement and gentrification of vulnerable residents in the affected areas. While gentrification remains a significant concern for urban sustainability initiatives that aim to promote environmental justice, a consensus upon approaches and methods for precisely identifying communities undergoing gentrification is still lacking. While most of the existing research studies focused on examining the relationship between GIs and gentrification, little-to-no research was conducted to quantify the green gentrification vulnerability of different communities. To this end, and to bridge this knowledge gap, this paper proposes and develops a novel index called the green gentrification vulnerability index (GGVI). First, an extensive list of 35 indicators that contribute to green gentrification was identified and grouped into 7 categories: economic, social, housing, household, demographic, amenities, and GIs. Second, data were gathered on the 35 indicators for all the 2325 census tracts across New York City (NYC) in the US. Third, the data were preprocessed to ensure their suitability for implementing Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Fourth, PCA was implemented for each of the 7 categories separately to weight their respective green gentrification indicators and calculate vulnerability scores. Finally, these vulnerability scores were used to develop the GGVI. The research findings provided insights on the importance of the 35 indicators as well as the 7 green gentrification-related vulnerability categories in relation to their contribution to the GGVI. The 7 categories were ranked as follows: amenities, GIs, economic, demographic, social, housing, and households. In addition, proximity to parks, frequency of parks, proximity to GIs, and total area of parks were found to be the most important GIs-related indicators that could lead to green gentrification. Overall, this paper contributes to the growing body of research that addresses green gentrification by being the first study that proposes and develops a GGVI that can be used to identify at-risk communities from green gentrification and ultimately help practitioners, urban planners, decision-makers, and researchers in developing new policies and strategies aimed to mitigate the unintended consequences of green gentrification (i.e., displacement of vulnerable communities) and promote environmental justice and urban sustainability. • Green gentrification vulnerability was studied based on 35 indicators. • The importance of the different indicators was determined. • Principal Component Analysis was used to develop a GGVI. • The proposed index allows census-track green gentrification vulnerability analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) is a decision support tool that analyzes the environmental and social impacts of infrastructure projects. This paper focuses on the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), a law requiring EIA use in California, to examine where new infrastructure is proposed and whether EIA can shape infrastructure distribution and environmental justice through the review process. We analyze the temporal and spatial distribution of more than 7000 infrastructure projects and their environmental impacts as proposed under CEQA from 2011 to 2020. Using fixed-effects negative binomial regression to model the association between the number of initiated projects and existing socioeconomic and environmental conditions by census tract, and multinomial logistic regression to investigate determinants of a project's level of environmental review, we find an unequal distribution of infrastructure. We find that socio-economically vulnerable communities and those with greater burden of environmental pollution are less likely to be the site of newly proposed infrastructure, but that proposed projects tend to be beneficial, less-polluting infrastructure like parks or schools that could help redress past injustices. Moreover, projects proposed in vulnerable communities are less likely to receive the most stringent reviews or have their impacts mitigated. These findings suggest that CEQA interacts with distributive justice in contradictory ways. They also highlight the need to separately consider environmental amenities versus harms such that EIA processes do not stand as a barrier to constructing beneficial infrastructure in environmental justice communities. • New and upgraded infrastructure helps overcome historic distributional injustices burdening poor, minority communities. • In California, new infrastructure is proposed less often in socioeconomically vulnerable and more polluted neighborhoods. • California's environmental impact assessment (EIA) law is inconsistently addressing distributional justice. • Projects proposed in less vulnerable communities likely receive more stringent EIA reviews and have their impacts mitigated. • EIA is not designed to consider environmental amenities and may limit beneficial infrastructure from redressing past harms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Highlights pivotal nursing contributions to environmental science throughout history, from Florence Nightingale, to science activists in the 60's and 70's, to changemakers today • Describes the programs of research of leading environmental nursing scientists and how their work has paved the way for future generations of researchers • Emphasizes that all nurses must incorporate environmental science and translation into their research and practice; this is especially critical today in the context of urgent threats like climate change, significant racial health disparities, and emerging pathogens like COVID-19. Since its founding, professional nursing has applied an environmental lens to healing. This CANS 2020 Keynote article describes the history of nursing environmental science and nurses important contributions to the US Environmental Justice Movement. Starting with Florence Nightingale's Notes on Nursing, which established Environmental Theory, the paper introduces key figures throughout nursing history who have studied and advocated for environmental health and justice. The paper emphasizes that nursing has always been about environmental health and that, regardless of specialty or practice setting, all nurses are called to incorporate environmental science and translation into their research and practice. This call to action is especially critical today in the context of urgent issues like climate change, environmental racism and racial health disparities, emerging infectious diseases like COVID-19, and chemical exposures in the home and workplace (among others). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental health research produces scientific knowledge about environmental hazards crucial for public health and environmental justice movements that seek to prevent or reduce exposure to these hazards. The environment in environmental health research is conceptualized as the range of possible social, biological, chemical, and/or physical hazards or risks to human health, some of which merit study due to factors such as their probability and severity, the feasibility of their remediation, and injustice in their distribution. This paper explores the ethics of identifying the relevant environment for environmental health research, as judgments involved in defining an environmental hazard or risk, judgments of that hazard or risk's probability, severity, and/or injustice, as well as the feasibility of its remediation, all ought to appeal to non-epistemic as well as epistemic values. I illustrate by discussing the case of environmental lead, a housing-related hazard that remains unjustly distributed by race and class and is particularly dangerous to children. Examining a controversy in environmental health research ethics where researchers tested multiple levels of lead abatement in lead-contaminated households, I argue that the broader perspective on the ethics of environmental health research provided in the first part of this paper may have helped prevent this controversy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Media, science, and legislation poorly represent the concerns of disadvantaged communities. • Developing effective policies requires addressing nuances and issue co-occurrence. • Community-specific knowledge is necessary to advance sustainable, effective solutions. A common approach in scientific research and policy is a commitment to develop projects or legislation trying to improve problems experienced by low-income and rural communities; however, lack of interaction with community members during the process tends to produce unsatisfactory results. We visited disadvantaged communities in the San Joaquin Valley of California and interviewed local stakeholders (community members and leaders, policy advocates, attorneys, and educators). Then we analyzed a corpus related to disadvantaged communities from a pool of California-related publications containing 154,000 scientific papers, 2.6 million newspaper articles, and 11,000 state legislation bills from 2017 to 2020 to estimate the frequency and quality of disadvantaged community representation. Here we present our findings describing the biases and gaps of knowledge by scientific papers, California newspaper articles, and legislation bills with respect to disadvantaged communities in California, and we suggest opportunities for scientists, media communicators, and policymakers to amplify the voices of these stakeholders. In all corpus categories, disadvantaged communities are underrepresented: about one in four Californians live in disadvantaged communities, but only one in 2000 news articles and scientific papers cover them. The concerns and priorities of disadvantaged communities do not match the public perspective of them depicted by the corpus. Developing effective policies requires addressing place-specific nuances and co-occurrence of structural inequities in partnership with local stakeholders. Holistic coverage in newspapers and community-based approaches are necessary platforms to increase awareness and sensibility about disadvantaged communities, helping tailor policy solutions, and building the political leverage needed to implement them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Artistic activism (artivism) contributes to organizational strategies of the movement. • Artivism expands the demographics of the movements and promotes inclusiveness. • Education, social cohesion and expression of ideas are main effects of artivism. • Youth advocacy for climate justice mostly relies on artistic activism. • Activist art's educational effect contributes to local environmentally conscious society. Mushrooming opposition to coal mining and transportation in the United States (US) connects with both environmental justice and climate justice movements. Artistic expressions are part of the strategic toolkit of these movements. Art's capacity to foster cultural, cognitive and psychological changes is amply recognized by academics as well as by public in general. Nevertheless, the theoretical question of how art is linked to activist strategies and to socio-spatial transformations in environmental conflicts remains unexplored. This paper contributes to filling this gap by examining the emblematic struggle to stop the construction of a coal-export terminal in Oakland, CA. Our data includes 32 in-depth interviews of activists, artists and legal experts linked to the conflict surrounding this coal-export terminal. Non-participant observation and secondary data collection helped to contextualize the interviews. The results offer a timeline of the movement, a map of artistic expressions, and network analyses around the effects of environmental artistic activism. We demonstrate that creative activism has critical relevance for facilitating engagement, education and outreach of the anti- coal movement. Arts and its spatial impact benefited the movement by expanding its scale and making it more inclusive regarding demographics, including particularly women and youth of color. The use of the arts raised environmental and political awareness and enhanced public participation in decision making. The paper connects the literatures of environmental justice, environmental humanities and human geography. We contribute to the yet underdeveloped dialogue discussing the capacity of art to influence socio-ecological structures and socio-spatial dynamics in cases of environmental justice conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meeting global emissions targets is highly likely to require the removal of previously emitted greenhouse gasses from the atmosphere, and increasing attention is being paid to novel innovations for carbon dioxide removal (CDR). Small Island Developing States (SIDS) are particularly at risk from climate change impacts and are therefore important to consider for CDR efforts, both in terms of CDR potential and risks. Grassroots, inclusive frameworks are valuable to advancing our understanding of the social implications of CDR, including valid concerns around efficacy and scalability, and should constitute crucial foundations in establishing the public support to develop, trial and transition novel proposals. This position paper, a collaboration between Vesta and researchers located in the Dominican Republic and the United Kingdom, presents a simple model for integrating local ownership, inclusion, and participatory governance of CDR through a case study of the establishment of a coastal enhanced weathering project in the Dominican Republic. This paper argues that the inclusion of actors from the Global South into CDR innovation will strengthen both ethical and governance considerations. Critical discourse around whether researching CDR in a SIDS context raises novel, locally embedded, and pertinent questions about the relationship between CDR and climate change adaptation. Conducting social science research to gauge understandings of climate change and public perceptions, while opening pathways for participation in project development, provides insight into and potentially addresses these emergent inquiries. Participatory, deliberative, and localized governance approaches may influence public perception in communities subject to climate change vulnerability, and evidence of its implementation would help to inform strategies to develop more ethical CDR solutions aligned with climate justice principles. • Small Island Developing States are particularly at risk from climate change impacts. • Participatory frameworks are key for societal appraisal of carbon dioxide removal. • Localized governance may positively influence public perception acceptability. • Social research can provide insights into public understandings of climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United Nations' (UNs) 2030 " Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. " This requires much effort of in governmental policies along with public and private sector practices. With regard to this, BGs have a crucial role in bringing this vision of the future. Of the 17 SDGs, Target 15—Life on land is directly associated with the traditional work of botanic gardens (BGs). But other four goals (2—Zero hunger, 4—Quality education, 11—Sustainable cities and communities, 13—Climate action) are also worthy of review and analyze when considering BGs. They could meet the needs of both the local and global communities and are effective in shaping the future and promoting the 2030 goals. In this context, paying attention to the UN's global and inclusive call, this paper focuses on Eden Project, United Kingdom, Ecorium of National Institute of Ecology, South Korea and Konya Tropical Botanical Garden, Turkey. Missions of the projects rely on conservation, restoration, education and community engagement. They address several global concerns, including climate and biodiversity emergency. Aim of this paper is to investigate to what extent the selected BGs can contribute to the SDGs. Results underline BGs as a valuable input in decision-making and policy action concerning environmental justice, equity, and inclusion that encourage transformative steps in achieving the SDGs. ● Eden Project, Ecorium Project and Konya Tropical Botanical Garden are prominent tourist destinations by their role in exhibition, conservation, education and research. ● The selected projects support community engagement activities that can contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals. ● Botanic gardens in developed or developing countries have potential to boost social justice and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Freight transportation is one of the largest contributors to the transportation sector's greenhouse gases (GHG) and noise pollution. The adverse effects of the industry are not distributed equally due to large spatial disparities, with minority and low-income populations more prone to live near freight-related facilities and truck routes. However, equity analysis focusing on freight transport is limited since empirical analysis requires costly data collection processes, and analysis in large-scale areas is challenging. The principal objective of this study is to conduct an equity analysis of the impact of freight-related trips in the Atlanta-Chattanooga-Knoxville region using a large-scale agent-based simulation framework. The main results show that low-income (less than $52k) and more heavily non-white population neighbourhoods are disadvantaged neighbourhoods in terms of noise and GHG emissions. The results and methods presented in this paper can be used to provide tools to develop transportation equity and social justice analysis in large networks and can be used to develop policies and regulations to reduce the impact of freight transportation on disadvantaged populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than a century, wildlife conservation in the United States has been built on the notion that nonhuman animal populations are resources to be regulated by law and managed efficiently, according to the best available science and in the public trust. This approach, known as the North American Model of Wildlife Management, has come under increasing criticism for excluding diverse viewpoints that have the potential to advance both conservation and environmental justice goals. How might the greater inclusion of Indigenous worldviews and Indigenous Studies concepts, such as radical relationality and kincentricity , improve western wildlife management? In this paper, we review three case studies of tribal wildlife stewardship programs in the land currently known as California—the Maidu Summit Consortium's beaver restoration project, the Karuk Tribe's elk management program, and the Yurok Tribe's condor recovery effort—that illuminate generative connections among ecological restoration, Indigenous cultural practices, community wellbeing, and environmental justice. Radical relationality and kincentricity offer enormous potential for informing stewardship and recovery efforts that produce more just outcomes for both people and wildlife. • Supporting Indigenous worldviews and practices improves outcomes for both people and wildlife. • Indigenous communities create innovative partnerships that hold culture and environmental justice at the center. • The NAM's tenets are flawed and complicit in settler colonialism. • Case studies in beaver, elk, and condor stewardship demonstrate Indigenous leadership in the application of relationality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores how Indigenous-led research reframes the impacts and response to environmental disasters in the context of acid mine spills in rural communities of the Southwest United States. The collaborative research project addressing the Gold King Mine Spill (GKMS) designed qualitative methodologies that center Indigenous worldviews and contribute to broader understandings of environmental justice. The research team, led by Diné scholars and community leaders, gathered qualitative responses from 123 adult participants in twelve focus groups from three rural communities on the Navajo Nation. The project incorporated fluent Diné speakers and cultural consultants to lead focus groups in a manner consistent with cultural worldviews. The analysis of the focus group data resulted in original findings that reframe previous understandings of environmental harm by broadening the boundaries to include: 1) social relations across time; 2) social relations across space; 3) spiritual relations; and 4) restoring balance. The findings allow for greater insight into the colonial context of disaster on rural and Indigenous lands and confronts colonial-rooted disasters through Indigenous-informed political action. • An Indigenous led research team initiated a new process of framing environmental harm. • Research methods were aligned with the Diné worldview and guided data collection. • Indigenous EJ highlights relationality and the settler colonial context. • Participants desire new forms of healing beyond monetary compensation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Debates on the political ecology of populism has not reached the conservation field. • Yet a new populist conservation model is appearing in different locations in Spain. • Populist conservation builds on neoliberal and participatory conservation. • It permits the co-optation and privatization of conservation. • It can be resisted from an environmental justice rationale. The global surge of right-wing populism and its impact on environmental policies are attracting the attention of political ecologists. However, little of this debate has reached the nature conservation literature. In this paper, I explore the emergence of populist logics in conservation as a result of the entrenchment of neoliberalism after the 2008 economic crisis. On the one hand, neoliberalism has incited the roll-back of public institutions that hitherto monopolised the management of protected areas (PAs), as well as the roll-out of market-based and network-based forms of PA governance. At the same time, it has also had a significant impact on rural communities, imposing austerity policies that have caused a great deal of social and economic precarity and vulnerability, generating feelings of abandonment, dispossession and disenfranchisement. To illustrate how these two phenomena intersect and motivate the surge of right-wing populism in conservation, this paper dissects a number of parliamentary debates on a recent policy reform that seeks to decentralise the management of PAs in Asturias, a region in the north of Spain. These debates brought together stakeholders and members of several rural groups with different political orientations and views, including public administrators and policy-makers, farmers and livestock breeders, farmers' unions, landowners, tourism business owners, hunters and academics. I analyse how right-wing populist discourses framed this policy change, scapegoated the public management of conservation for all the problems suffered in rural areas, and co-opted popular demands of rural communities, reducing them to the economic interest of private landowners. I will also describe the various attempts made to negotiate a left-wing, progressive democratic alternative that hinges on the recognition of the social complexity of rural communities and the diversity of problems that affect them. The paper ends with a reflection on the lessons that the critical studies of conservation and public participation can learn from this negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Focuses on race, climate change and the urban Anthropocene. • Braids stories of co-becomings with urban Saltwater Country prone to anthropogenic climate change. • Entangles Indigenous and Ethnic minority knowledges in white settler cities. • Develops the concept of affective ecologies. Emerging research on Anthropocene urbanism shows a commitment to human-nature centred futures and environmental justice but fails to engage with the language of race. Thinking the Anthropocene through race, however, has the potential to decolonise dominant apocalyptic narratives of climate change and provide insights into imaginaries of diverse urban futures. This paper argues that such futures run through entangled Indigenous and Ethnic minority worlds in white settler cities but are often explored separately. To entangle these worlds, I introduce and develop the concept of affective ecologies or sentient embodiments of ecological interdependency grounded in everyday urban life. The paper draws on in-depth interviews, focus groups, archival photographs as well as participatory photographs/video/films taken by racialised Indigenous peoples, ethnic minority migrants, refugees and asylum seekers in Darwin, a tropical north Australian city. I braid stories of co-becomings with this Saltwater Country prone to anthropogenic climate change by focusing on two events – Loving Country and Listening to Old Man Rock. The findings provide new insights into urban cosmopolitics that calls for articulating, reassembling and co-composing plural modes of coexistence in the Anthropocene. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Over 24 million plastic bags are consumed in Kenya monthly. More than half of the bags end up in the solid waste stream. Plastic bags now constitute the biggest challenge to solid waste management in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya and home to three million people. As a result, plastic bag waste has attracted great political and public attention, especially because the waste has myriad unique environmental problems. This paper seeks to unravel the problem of plastic bag waste in Nairobi through an urban political ecological perspective. Urban political ecology has done much to excavate economic, political, and cultural processes, as well as ecological dynamics that create and re-create urban environments. Little has been done in this context with respect to urban solid waste problems, with the exception of urban political ecology of environmental justice. However, research done within the context of urban political ecology of environmental justice has mainly focused on solid waste problems in the Western World, particularly USA. Drawing on research conducted in Nairobi, as well literature on business and politics, and solid waste management in Kenya, this paper examines the nature of plastic bag waste problem, its political–economic roots and implications for environmental justice. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Social equity has become a growing emphasis in urban tree planting programs, with multiple cities across the world aiming to reduce racial/ethnic and socio-economic disparities in tree canopy distribution. However, despite escalating concerns about equity in urban greening, there is a dearth of research that applies the principles of environmental justice – including both recognition and procedural justice - to tree planting, specifically. This integrative review identified and analyzed academic papers focused on social and environmental justice related to urban tree planting programs in the United States. We searched academic databases using keywords such as "social equity AND tree planting" to identify peer-reviewed papers on the subject. After several filtering steps, 15 papers published between 2004 and 2021 were analyzed to understand outcomes from strategies that cities have employed in pursuit of equitable tree planting and the factors that influenced their success. We characterized outcomes, documented challenges faced, and identified best practices for equitable urban greening. Critical lessons learned include the value of prioritizing distributional equity over the number of trees planted, the need to form community partnerships and engage communities in the tree planting programs, and the importance of providing funding and resources for ongoing tree maintenance after initial planting. More research is needed to build on the limited studies to date with the goal of effectively integrating multiple environmental justice dimensions (i.e., distributive, procedural, recognition) into urban tree planting programs. [Display omitted] • Social equity concerns affect the success of urban tree planting programs. • Reviews of existing studies reveal evidence-based recommendations for equitable greening. • Prominent challenges include ongoing tree care/maintenance and negative perceptions of trees. • Successful strategies typically involve engagement and partnerships with communities. • Important to prioritize equity over efficiency for long term tree-planting success. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Justice theory is intended to guide practical choices, but justice theories struggle to inform many decisions that must be made in climate change adaptation practice. This paper highlights gaps between theory and practice by analyzing the justice dimensions of dilemmas routinely faced by adaptation administrators, using the example of property acquisitions to ground the analysis. Justice theories struggle to assist decision-makers in: prioritizing distribution of resources; distributing programs that cause both harms and benefits; weighing uncertain harms and benefits; identifying participants and resolving conflicts in participatory processes; and redressing historic injustices. Proposals to improve adaptation justice that do not address one or more of the practical dilemmas faced by administrators are unlikely to advance the cause. Absent theoretical or policy guidance, decisions are often shaped by administrators' unconscious heuristics such as views on the role of government and the purpose of buyouts. Tailoring justice-relevant decisions to local contexts may provide greater benefits than a universal approach to justice, but a relative approach is most likely to be just when justice-relevant decisions are transparent and informed by theoretical and empirical work. Transparency is critical for accountability, evaluation, and policy learning. Justice decisions are often constrained by limited authority, resources, and institutional goals, so achieving greater justice in climate adaptation may require changes in the larger governance systems within which adaptation decisions are made. More nuanced evaluations of adaptation justice, more comparative analyses, enabled by greater transparency in practice, and more holistic approaches to adaptation governance are recommended moving forward. • Major gaps persist between justice theories and adaptation practice. • Proposals to improve adaptation justice should specifically address dilemmas. • Transparency in justice decisions improves accountability, evaluation, and policy learning. • Justice heuristics may enable local tailoring if explicit and evidence-informed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Biden administration has revitalized the United States' climate agenda. Current research on the U.S. climate mitigation policies has predominantly focused on individual policies and legislative measures, demonstrating a lack of a comprehensive and systematic analysis. To address this gap, this study establishes a systematic analytical framework for US climate mitigation policies, including the "Vertical Policy Hierarchy - Horizontal Policy Path - Policy Instruments" dimensions, drawing upon first-hand policy data to thoroughly assess the U.S. climate mitigation policy system, pathways, instruments, and potential policy outcomes. The study finds that, (i) Concerning the vertical policy hierarchies based on the government's governance structure, the U.S. federal government has been proactive in advancing climate mitigation policies. However, the government faces multiple risks arising from various factors, including elections, public opinion, limited authority, frequent economic and social unrest, and the ever-shifting domestic and international political factors. These vulnerabilities may undermine the effectiveness of policies. The Congress also encounters certain challenges of significant fragmentation and influence from diverse economic and political factors, which poses challenges to the enactment of related environmental legislation. Moreover, the Supreme Court's climate litigation rulings tend to exhibit a conservative and highly politicized nature. (ii) In terms of the horizontal policy path, which is categorized into six major focus areas, the U.S. climate mitigation policies have made positive strides in the general sector, buildings sector, transport sector, and agriculture and forestry sector. However, challenges persist in the energy sector and industry and business sector. (iii) An analysis of 706 policy instruments indicates that Financial/Fiscal Mechanisms and Direct Investment are the primary means of implementing U.S. climate mitigation policies. Since President Biden assumed office, Regulatory Reform has emerged as a significant breakthrough, accompanied by the gradual adoption of Commercialization Mechanisms and Governance Mechanisms. However, Market-based Mechanisms have encountered challenges in their implementation at the federal level. (iv) An analysis of the potential effects of policy instruments indicates that institutional requirements are a primary consideration; policy design emphasizes environmental justice and equity. Many policies demonstrate positive outcomes in terms of environmental effectiveness, economic effectiveness, and innovation. Policies are also beneficial in improving people's livelihoods, reducing inflation, increasing employment, while also exhibiting positive synergies and enhancing competitiveness. Combining these results and issues, this paper also discusses prominent trends in the policy and offers recommendations for climate decision-making in the United States and other countries. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the face of climate change, the circular economy is attracting the attention of public authorities, international institutions, industry and academia. There is currently no consensus on its definition and it varies according to the sectors and actors. The objectives of this work are threefold: (i) to identify all the discourses and initiatives attributed to the circular economy in order to situate them according to whether they belong to weak or strong sustainability; (ii) to enhance the value of this information by centralizing it, and creating tools to facilitate its exploration and access; (iii) to analyze how these initiatives allow circular economy to address global sustainability. Questions regarding data sources and processing of this information were raised to facilitate the collection of relevant data. This work focuses on information published on social networks, in particular Twitter called X now. Several data processing techniques such as text mining, geocoding and knowledge graph generation are applied. Data visualization tools are used to show the distribution of the data on a spatial, thematic and temporal level. The results obtained confirm the over-representation of circular economy practices based on weak sustainability in developed countries, while circular economy initiatives based on strong sustainability are most common in the Global South. This paper provides evidence on the social contribution of circular economy, which is less addressed in the technocentric approach. [Display omitted] • Global circular economy initiatives are collected, analyzed and mapped. • Circular economy initiatives are classified as strong or weak sustainability. • Weak sustainability initiatives exist in Global North, strong ones in Global South. • The circular economy is reconciled with the social pillar of sustainability. • Circular Economy can be linked to theories of social and environmental justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we studied the motivations, constraints, negotiations, and policy changes for riding transit to parks in Utah's Wasatch Front region, exploring how these factors vary between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged individuals. This is one of the first studies to explore transit-to-parks experiences in large urban regions. We conducted interviews with 25 diverse transit riders. Motivations for riding transit to parks included environmental concerns and the convenience of avoiding parking and traffic. Constraints involved excessive travel time due to limited service, transit frequency and reliability issues, and last-mile connection issues. The main negotiation strategy was to plan trips to limit travel time. People in low-income neighborhoods had limited transit-to-parks services, and available services were adequate for fit and non-disabled people. Policy changes that would help participants address constraints included new or modified routes, improved last-mile connections, information and marketing campaigns, and better service for low-income communities and people with disabilities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conservation and Development Interventions (CDIs) aim to promote sustainable natural resource use and contribute to both biodiversity conservation (or restoration) and human well-being. Their long-term impact on social-ecological interactions hinges on their transformative potential to achieve sustainability. In this perspective paper, we categorize CDIs based on their strategies for achieving transformative change, empowering decision-makers to guide social-ecological systems towards sustainability. We classify CDIs by their specific dependencies between values, rules, and knowledge systems in decision-making, power relations, and environmental justice in creating transformations. Based on this classification, we identify three 'realms' of CDI: (1) the realm of "management", i.e., interventions for a just and sustainable natural resource use happen at a broad but shallow level through management design and content. Here, formal rules and visible power structures dominate to achieve distributive justice; (2) the realm of "understanding", i.e., interventions that offer a better understanding of knowledge diversity and shedding light on invisible power structures by addressing procedural justice; (3) the realm of "engagement", i.e., interventions that elucidate the underlying human value system and uncover hidden power structures, e.g., by analysing social discourses and thereby deeply engaging with recognitional justice in sustainable natural resource use. This work suggests that CDIs can enhance their capacity to drive transformative change towards promoting sustainable natural resource use by strategically addressing and actively involving all three realms. • Conservation and Development Interventions hold potential to transform social-ecological systems towards sustainability. • This potential hinges upon the interplay of decision-making, power relations, and environmental justice. • We classified three realms within which interventions take place: "management"; "understanding", and "engagement". • Strategically addressing these realms may foster transformative change in sustainable natural resource use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Frontline communities are often excluded and tokenized in coastal resiliency planning. • Interviews with New York-area community leaders reveal pathways to better planning. • Centering and investing in community-level expertise can improve planning outcomes. • Equitable partnerships require ongoing dialogue, accountability and self-evaluation. • Iterative co-production of resiliency research yields valuable, actionable insight. Community-based organizations (CBOs) in frontline coastal communities grapple with social and environmental injustices compounded by climate change risks. In response, CBOs have developed deep expertise in climate adaptation tailored to their local communities. Yet these groups are often effectively excluded from resilience planning processes that are top-down and involve perfunctory and often performative consultations. This paper asks: What do community leaders seek from adaptation planning, and how do they recommend such processes be improved? Drawing on the experiences of ten CBOs in coastal New York and New Jersey, the majority representing BIPOC environmental justice communities, this article advances community-driven priorities for coastal resilience planning outcomes and processes. We conducted structured 60–90-minute interviews with ten CBO leaders between February-March 2022, collaboratively completed an iterative content analysis of the interview data and community plans, and workshopped core findings in multiple sessions and conversations with participating CBOs through early 2024. CBO leaders had consensus on resilience planning priorities: they oppose top-down approaches where planners bring a predetermined agenda, and seek true partnership through a relational approach that values grassroots perspectives to co-produce equitable and just strategies to address climate risk. Recommendations for decision-makers center on the need to build on existing community-led plans, invest in community leadership within planning processes, act with transparency to foster trust, partnership and co-planning with communities, and self-evaluate their practice. Lessons for researchers seeking to support community leadership within resilience planning include the need to establish lasting and mutually supportive relationships with community partners to enable knowledge co-production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Gentrification precedes and follows the opening of new parks in Los Angeles. • Gentrification precedes the opening of new parks in Chicago. • Gentrification precedes and follows the opening of non-regional parks in Los Angeles. • Stronger evidence of gentrification preceding greening farther from downtown in Los Angeles. • Gentrification follows greening close to downtown but not farther away in Los Angeles. The health benefits of green space have led to calls for equitable access to parks. When new green spaces are built in low-income communities, however, gentrification often ensues. The "green gentrification" literature has paid little attention to gentrification that might occur before greening. In this paper, we explore whether and under which circumstances gentrification might precede and follow greening, a process known as the "green gentrification cycle." Focusing on Los Angeles and Chicago, we build hedonic models focused on single-family homes sold in 2010–2021 and run post-hoc pairwise comparison tests to assess price changes over time for homes within a half-mile of new parks (treatment) and farther (control). When considering all new parks, we find that gentrification is associated with subsequent greening and, to some extent, that greening is associated with ensuing gentrification in Los Angeles. In Chicago, gentrification is associated with subsequent greening, but new parks are not associated with ensuing gentrification. Models distinguishing larger regional from smaller non-regional parks show evidence of gentrification before and after non-regional parks were built in Los Angeles, but not for regional parks. In Los Angeles, we identify stronger evidence of gentrification preceding greening farther from downtown than closer to downtown, and signals of gentrification after greening near downtown but not farther away. Models focusing on new parks built near transit stations show inconclusive results. Despite methodological limitations (e.g., examining a single measure of gentrification and different park types together), our findings shed light on the complex spatiotemporal relationships between greening and gentrification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Case study of wetlands conservation for carbon sequestration in California, USA. • Defines framework for assessing justice of state investment in climate mitigation. • Most vulnerable communities received least funding for wetlands conservation. • Wetlands' climate adaptive co-benefits concentrated in least vulnerable communities. • "Just mitigation" requires producing adaptive co-benefits for most vulnerable. Using the case of wetlands in California, USA, this paper defines (and assesses strategies for advancing) an understudied corollary of maladaptation and "just adaptation": "just mitigation." Wetlands sequester carbon, making their conservation and restoration important for climate mitigation. They also offer co-benefits for climate adaptation, such as greenspace that mitigates the urban heat island and improves local environmental health. However, if such co-benefits are concentrated in the least vulnerable communities, the result would be "unjust mitigation." This analysis uses a distributive justice lens to compare environmental justice indicators between areas of past and potential investment in wetlands conservation and restoration. On average, areas with greater pollution burden and social vulnerability and less greenspace have received less investment in wetlands conservation and restoration and contain fewer wetlands that could receive investment earmarked for wetlands in the future. This begs the question of what degree of such inequality is acceptable in exchange for reducing overall carbon emissions. Advancing "just mitigation" requires prioritizing wetlands near environmentally burdened communities. However, if such wetlands have reduced sequestration potential due to ecological damage, the goals of mitigation, adaptation, and environmental justice may be in tension. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the potential of electric vehicles (EVs) to mitigate climate change and reduce reliance on fossil fuels, their rapid adoption presents nuanced challenges to both social equity and environmental stewardship within the transportation sector. While the EV revolution contributes to energy independence, job creation, and sustainable development, it also raises concerns regarding its potential impact on the human rights of people impacted by the production, use, and end-of-life of EVs. Unfortunately, current studies on transportation electrification often fail to provide a systematic review of such human rights challenges and concerns. This paper aims to fill this gap by analyzing the potential impacts and challenges that EVs present for human rights throughout their life cycle, and by proposing potential measures to address human rights violations. Our analysis draws on international human rights norms, law, and standards because of their universality and suitability for developing baseline indicators, modes of inquiry, and reporting that can be used to assess the potential harm of EVs to vulnerable communities and degraded ecosystems. The aim is to enable stakeholders (i.e., actors within civil society, government, and the private sector) to better understand the potential social and environmental challenges of EVs and ensure that the transition to low-carbon transportation is equitable, sustainable, and supportive of human rights. • A systematic review of human rights concerns regarding EV revolution in the transportation sector. • Different stages of EV life cycle and the corresponding human rights implications were explored. • The implications of EV to vulnerable populations and degraded ecosystems were highlighted. • Potential measures to address human rights violations were identified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper introduces the results of an exploratory study, aimed at designing and testing an ecological discourse analysis framework, applicable to texts in Chinese language. Focusing on vocabulary, the study followed an iterative deductive-inductive process. First, a preliminary framework of lexical indicators was identified through literature review, adapted to Chinese language by means of a pilot analysis, and validated based on experts' judgement. The framework was then tested on a sample of documents relevant to an environmental justice case in China. Results indicate that our Chinese Language Ecological Discourse Analysis (C-LEDA) framework can assist a coherent ecolinguistic characterization of Chinese texts by highlighting lexical patterns that reflect diverse social-ecological values and worldviews. Our work is a meaningful contribution to developing reliable tools for ecolinguistic analysis and lays the ground for further advancements in the field. More specifically, it constitutes a first step to support the development of: (a) multi-criteria annotation schemes for quantitative, corpus-assisted ecological discourse analysis; (b) qualitative and quantitative comparative studies, broadening the scope of analysis to the wider Sinophone context; and (c) co-creative protocols to re-story documents used in environmental planning to address the extractivist bias inherent in such processes. • We introduce a novel framework of Chinese Language Ecological Discourse Analysis (C-LEDA). • We provide a valuable insight into an underexplored area of inquiry in Chinese linguistics. • We identified Chinese-specific lexical features characterising different approaches to environmental issues. • Further applications include corpus-assisted analysis, qualitative comparative analysis, and co-creative restorying. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban green spaces – including parks, trees, and other vegetated areas – are inequitably distributed in cities worldwide, as underserved groups, such as low-income and people of color, have significantly lower provisions of such resources. Motivated by the health benefits of green spaces, advocates and policymakers in several countries have sought to ameliorate these systemic inequities by implementing green space equity initiatives. Many such initiatives are individual projects (e.g., a new park in an underserved neighborhood), but new policies have also been implemented to advance green space equity. To date, limited research has examined which policies have been implemented, what it takes to adopt and implement them, and whether they have effectively advanced green space equity. Based on a scoping literature review and a workshop with an interdisciplinary group of researchers, we developed a research agenda on green space equity policy. Our research agenda includes research questions grouped into four interrelated themes: policy impact and evaluation, power building and policy change, green gentrification, and health equity and climate change. The contributions of this paper are twofold: We synthesize current knowledge on green space equity policy and present a research agenda whose findings can inform policy work on green space equity. • Limited research has examined policies to advance green space equity. • We developed a research agenda on green space equity policy based on a scoping review and a workshop. • In the review, we identified research on green space equity policies, processes to adopt them, and their effectiveness. • Agenda themes include policy evaluation, power building, green gentrification, and health equity and climate change. • Research on green space equity policy speaks to global challenges such as health inequities and climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A 16-year update on the first UK environmental justice air quality study is given. • Emissions for private vehicles are attributed to census area of registered keeper. • Social inequalities in traffic-related pollution exposure are clearer and stronger. • Young children, adults, and households in poverty have highest levels of exposure. • A strong inverse relationship was found between poverty and emissions generation. This paper presents unique spatial analyses identifying substantial discrepancies in traffic-related emissions generation and exposure by socioeconomic and demographic groups. It demonstrates a compelling environmental and social injustice narrative with strong policy implications for the UK and beyond. In the first instance, this research presents a decadal update for England and Wales to Mitchell and Dorling's 2003 analysis of environmental justice in the UK. Using 2011 UK Government pollution and emissions data with 2011 UK Census socioeconomic and demographic data based on small area census geographies, this paper demonstrates a stronger relationship between age, poverty, road NO x emissions and exposure to NO 2 concentrations. Areas with the highest proportions of under-fives and young adults, and poorer households, have the highest concentrations of traffic-related pollution. In addition, exclusive access to UK annual vehicle safety inspection records ('MOT' tests) allowed annual private vehicle NO x emissions to be spatially attributed to registered keepers. Areal analysis against Census-based socioeconomic characteristics identified that households in the poorest areas emit the least NO x and PM, whilst the least poor areas emitted the highest, per km, vehicle emissions per household through having higher vehicle ownership, owning more diesel vehicles and driving further. In conclusion, the analysis indicates that, despite more than a decade of air quality policy, environmental injustice of air pollution exposure has worsened. New evidence regarding the responsibility for generation of road traffic emissions provides a clear focus for policy development and targeted implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates a grassroots Chinese movement called the New Rural Reconstruction Movement (NRRM). Drawing on field visits, surveys, interviews and social media posts regarding a NRRM project and relevant literature I link the NRRM to the degrowth movement. This is likely the first research analysing a Chinese grass-roots movement from a degrowth theoretical perspective. This link is designed to bring greater awareness of the NRRM to western environmentalists and greater awareness of degrowth to Chinese scholars, in the expectation that the two movements will find it beneficial to engage in collaborative research. This paper demonstrates similar progressive environmental based arguments are being debated in places with different geographical and socio-political contexts. It suggests there is the possibility that the NRRM and degrowth could work together to help achieve shared goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Inequality in access to ecosystem services is inextricably linked with environmental justice in socially heterogeneous urban settings. Historically, San Antonio has been the gateway to Mexico and is strategically located along the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) corridor. It is also characterized by some of the most distinct residential segregation among U.S. cities. However, little is understood about the ways in which historically institutionalized residential segregation initiated by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) and NAFTA have affected socio-ecological outcomes. Here, this paper presents a novel empirical study of racial residential segregation. The study utilizes quantitative and spatially explicit estimates of regulating ecosystem services and biodiversity, and links the supply of ecosystem services to the distribution of human well-being within a heterogeneous social-ecological system. Specifically, the paper employed 1930s HOLC redlining maps and applied the ceteris paribus approach for racial concentrations to reflect a historical legacy and path dependence by institutional inertia. The results point to the social-ecological divide in that Hispanic and African American minorities derive fewer ecosystem benefits and face greater health risks and socio-economic disadvantages (p < 0.01). Notably, NAFTA corridor-related health risks are the most significant for the Hispanic population (p < 0.01). These patterns are likely to persist and may be amplified by 2050 (adjusted R 2 = 0.646). The findings highlight that institutional transformations are essential for the greater social-ecological equity in the San Antonio region under NAFTA and, potentially, new United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Additionally, by assessing the EJ implications of spatially heterogeneous distribution of ecosystem services supply, the paper provides methodology that enhances science-based planning and better environmental decision-making to avoid or mitigate social-ecological divides in rapidly urbanizing regions both in the U.S. and around the world. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • A novel empirical study of ecosystem service-based racial segregation is presented. • Historical legacy and path dependence of environmental injustice are demonstrated. • NAFTA corridor-related health risks are the most significant for the Hispanics. • Persistent residential segregation is likely to degrade sustainability through 2050. • Institutional transformations are essential to mitigate the social-ecological divide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Prior research on plug-in electric vehicle (PEV) adoption has revealed that early adopters tend to be wealthy consumers, this may mean that the benefits of PEVs are not being equitably distributed. Extensive research has shown that low-income and minority commutes are disproportionately impacted by environmental and transportation injustice. PEVs can contribute to importing air quality and could provide lower cost and more reliable transportation to low-income and minority communities if they are deployed there. This paper takes an early quantitative look at PEV adoption in disadvantaged communities (DACs), which are census tracts in California that suffer from a combination of economic barriers and environmental burden. We use six datasets to examine PEV market share, socioeconomic characteristics of PEV owners, and PEV charging infrastructure. Analysis confirms that adoption of both new and used PEVs in DACs occurs at very low rates - 5.7% and 8.7% of all PEV sales, respectively - that are disproportionate with the number of households that reside in these areas. Owners of new or used PEVs in DACs have slightly lower incomes than PEV owners in non-disadvantaged communities. However, as a group they have higher incomes, are higher educated, and fewer are home-renters than the DAC average, indicating that they are not representative of their surrounding community. Encouragingly, charging infrastructure is present in DAC census tracts, suggesting that further PEV adoption could be supported. Additionally, there are higher proportions of used PEVs in DACs than new PEVs, which may indicate potential for adoption of these lower-priced vehicles, however rates of adoption are still low. Despite the considerable benefits that PEVs could offer in DACs, there are still substantial barriers to PEV. Key barriers for policy-makers to continually address are the prohibitive price of the technology, lack of knowledge about or ease of accessing PEV incentives, and lack of access to public or private charging infrastructure located near multi-unit housing. Highlights • This paper investigates EV adoption in disadvantaged communities (DACs) in California. • Adoption of new or used electric vehicles is lower in DACs than in non-DACs. • Some DAC residents do purchase new and used electric vehicles. • These buyers are not typical DAC resident though, having high household incomes. • More work is needed to increase electric vehicle adoption in DACs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A call for a new research agenda to more explicitly include justice in transitions. • A review of literature examining how different disciplines have addressed the concept of justice. • An analytical framework and set of recommendations for integrating justice in transition research and practice. This paper argues that transitions research more broadly needs to take more account of justice in its analysis. This paper draws primarily from environmental and energy justice literature to engage with the concept of justice in transitions research, as it seeks justice for people, communities, and the non-human environment from negative environmental impacts. This is achieved through different forms of justice: distributive, procedural, and recognition. Our paper concludes with reflections upon the application of a justice approach to sustainability transitions research and offer insights into a potentially new research agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper explores the potential of the global urban gardening movement to mitigate spatial and environmental injustice conditions in the urban space. After a background discussion of the spatial and environmental injustice theory and an assessment of methodologies that have been adopted in relevant studies, we will highlight existing links with urban gardening initiatives in a specific case study, i.e. the city of Rome, Italy. The case study is introduced to investigate the spatial coincidence of urban gardening initiatives in this specific city (assumed as the dependent variable) and spatial and environmental injustice (S&EI) indicators. Several S&EI-related phenomena whose relevance has been demonstrated are mapped, and their goodness of fit in serving as explanatory variables for the spatial distribution of urban gardening agency is investigated. The analysis builds upon a quantitative approach and features a linear spatial regression model. Surprisingly, findings suggest that social-economic variables generally have greater influence on spatial injustice than environmental variables. In fact, from a theoretical perspective, our results challenge the current interpretation of urban gardening as a mere means to address environmental, food or nature-related issues in cities. Instead, they support the increasingly popular interpretation of urban gardening as a political gesture. Our results provide policy-makers with useful observations about key variables related to spatial injustice in the city and contrasting initiatives, notably urban gardening projects. The paper concludes with a critical assessment of the results and the limiting and supporting factors of the featured theoretical and methodological framework. Highlights • narrow the ensemble of relevant issues related to S&EI; • Show that – conversely from part of the literature – social-economic factors are more relevant than environmental ones; • Explore the degree to which UG can be regarded as a potential grassroot mitigation option for S&EI conditions through the presentation of the case study of Rome. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Environmental injustice due to economic inequality and its correlates and consequences has been a focus for researchers and policy makers alike over many years, with much of that research focusing on race as the major determinant of inequality. In this paper we extend this literature by focussing on emissions from the oil refinery industry at the community level. In particular, based on the use of panel data, we analyse econometrically how the environmental performance of individual petroleum refineries (emissions of benzene and toluene to the atmosphere) associates with determinants of economic inequality at the micro-level in terms of average per capita income at the level of United States counties as well as average county-level unemployment rates. The paper finds evidence of environmental injustice as a result of unemployment levels in areas around refineries and, to a slightly lesser extent, as a result of income inequality. It discusses these results in a wider context, referring amongst other things to the role of county-level community characteristics and the potential for private firms to substitute for the intervention of public institutions, if these are lacking. Highlights • The paper presents the findings of a study on the oil refining industry in the US. • The paper considers absolute and relative amounts of emissions of benzene and toluene. • Average per-capita county income is associated negatively with emissions. • Larger US refineries produce lower specific emissions per unit of output. • The paper supports the link between environmental performance and inequality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract While the critique to economic growth is quintessential in the degrowth scholarship, one may observe a similar focus in various environmental justice movements around the world. This is particularly visible when it comes to the increasing perception that mega-development projects are both unjust and unsustainable, threatening the survival of people and environments. In this paper, we illustrate this focus by looking at two anti-mining movements in Eastern Europe (EE): Save Rosia Montana (Romania) and Krumovgrad (Bulgaria). The local movements describe open cast mining (even in the prospective phase) as potential destruction of basic sources of life (material commons such as water or crops, and community relations). The paper emphasizes a dynamic involved in doing environmental justice, or 'de-growing EJ': affected communities organize themselves by 'staying in place', producing alternative economies, organizing local democratic institutions. What potentially ´´grows´´ here, is a societal imaginary of justice on how to reproduce the socio-ecological conditions of life by protecting and re-defining traditional means of production and grassroots practices, knowledge, wealth, and values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This paper investigates the introduction of unit-pricing (UP) schemes in waste management with regard to grassroots initiatives promoting bottom-up participatory processes in local communities, addressing several issues concerning environmental justice and degrowth. As waste service charges and fees increase in proportion of waste generated in presence of UP schemes, the paper explores and evaluates the socio-economic impact of these schemes at a local level, analysing data and information gathered from four municipalities in Spain. Findings indicate that UP schemes can provide a more balanced payment system for local residents, and help reducing free-rider behaviours associated with illegal and improper disposal practices. In addition, findings provide empirical evidence of the importance of grassroots initiatives in relation to increasing awareness regarding environmental issues among the public, and in view of facilitating change towards more sustainable practices within local communities. Conclusions gathered from this study offer valuable insights to local and national policymakers with regard to the design and delivery of UP schemes in waste management services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Where environmental procedures do not adequately include affected parties in decision-making, particularly those from vulnerable and marginalized sectors of society, environmental justice cannot be realized. Further, the practice of EIA will likely perpetuate the negative and disproportionate distribution of environmentally associated harms on vulnerable persons. Thus, this paper explores the potential merits of the capabilities approach for establishing sufficiency grounds for public participation in environmental impact assessment (EIA). The paper identifies shared principles of justice in decision-making between the practice of EIA and the capabilities approach by highlighting key ethical and theoretical concepts of the latter as a means to fortify this weakness in the participation practice of EIA. Capability probes explore individual stakeholder's opportunity, ability and constraints to participation. The findings of four South African (EIA) case studies are discussed, highlighting the instrumental relationship between participatory actions, potentials and entitlements as they are mediated by empowering or disempowering procedural mechanisms. Cases exhibiting convincing stakeholder empowerment demonstrate the value of sufficient support for participatory achievement. Instances of disempowerment in the cases underscore the dangers of insufficient and inequitable participation. Reflecting on the findings, the work applies the recent notions of capability ‘sufficiency’ ( Nielsen and Axelsen, 2016 ) to outline what can be delimited, and later contextually specified, for support provisions in EIA building towards more meaningful, and perhaps more just, public participation processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental goods and bads are accumulated and unequally distributed along the coal supply chain, producing environmental injustices where actors deployed values and representations of coal to either resist or legitimize its extraction and consumption. This paper analyzes those valuation languages along the coal chain and their relationships with the territory where coal is extracted and burned. The paper examines and compares the coal chains between Colombia-Netherlands and Colombia-Turkey, assessing the various dimensions of the ecological distribution conflicts. The coal chain is analyzed through different layers and scales. To identify the valuation languages along both coal chains, semi-structured interviews and secondary data analysis were conducted. Discourse analysis methodologies were used to determine the frequency and relevance of the valuation languages. Results show that multiple valuation languages appear, which are peculiar to each country and to the economic and political contexts in which the different stages of coal chain are embedded. Environmental justice actions taken along the coal chain with the focus on acknowledging these multiple valuation languages are also discussed. In conclusion, the analysis reveals that these actions depend on the willingness of social actors to give up or negotiate their valuation languages or on the power to impose them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 20 years, Uganda has emerged as a testing ground for the various modes of carbon forestry used in Africa. Carbon forestry initiatives in Uganda raise questions of justice, given that people with comparatively negligible carbon footprints are affected by land use changes initiated by the desire of wealthy people, firms, and countries to reduce their more extensive carbon footprints. This paper examines the notions of justice local people express in relation to two contrasting carbon forestry projects in Uganda, the Mount Elgon Uganda Wildlife Authority – Forests Absorbing Carbon Emissions (UWA-FACE) project and Trees for Global Benefit (TFGB). UWA-FACE closed down its initial operations at Mount Elgon after 10 years as a result of deep controversies and negative international publicity, whereas TFGB is regarded by many as an exemplary design for smallholder carbon forestry in Africa. Our approach builds upon an emerging strand in the literature, of empirical analyses of local people’s notions of justice related to environmental interventions. The main contribution of the paper is to examine how people’s notions of justice have influenced divergent project outcomes in these cases. In particular, we highlight the relative success of TFGB in the way it meets people’s primarily distributional concerns, apparently without significantly challenging prevalent expectations of recognition or procedural justice. In contrast, we illuminate how controversy across the range of justice dimensions in UWA-FACE at Mount Elgon ultimately led to the project’s decline. This paper therefore explores how attention to notions of justice can contribute to a fuller understanding of the reactions of people to carbon forestry projects, as well as the pathways and ultimate outcomes of such interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Climate change and increasing natural disasters coupled with years of deferred maintenance have added pressure to infrastructure in urban areas. Thus, monitoring for failure of these systems is crucial to prevent future impacts to life and property. Participatory assessment technique for infrastructure provides a community-based approach to assess the capacity and physical condition of infrastructure. Furthermore, a participatory assessment technique for infrastructure can encourage grassroots activism that engages residents, researchers, and planners in the identification of sustainable development concerns and solutions. As climate change impacts disproportionately affect historically disenfranchised communities, assessment data can further inform planning, aiming to balance the distribution of public resources towards sustainability and justice. This paper explains the development of the participatory assessment technique for infrastructure that can provide empirical data about the condition of infrastructure at the neighborhood-level, using stormwater systems in a vulnerable neighborhood in Houston, Texas as a case study. This paper argues for the opportunity of participatory methods to address needs in infrastructure assessment and describes the ongoing project testing the best use of these methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many Latinx and Indigenous Mexican populations in the United States Southwest live in unincorporated communities in the US-Mexico borderlands called colonias. These environmental justice communities often lack basic infrastructure, including healthcare services, prompting many to seek services across the border. However, due to geopolitical factors more vulnerable caregivers are limited to utilize healthcare services in the US. This paper reports the experiences and healthcare decision-making of caregivers living in colonias in the US-Mexico border region who care for children with respiratory health conditions. This study was carried out from September to December 2020. Focus groups and interviews were conducted with Latinx and Indigenous Mexican caregivers of children with asthma or respiratory distress. Qualitative interviews elicited caregivers' perspectives on the environmental factors affecting children's chronic health conditions and use of healthcare services. The analysis employed the concept of structure vulnerability to theorize geography as a structural determinant of health for caregivers faced with making healthcare decisions for their suffering from respiratory health conditions. A survey was administered to collect basic sociodemographic information. A total of 36 caregivers participated in the study. Structural factors including unincorporated community status and government inaction intersected with social determinants of health to prompt caregivers to cross the US-Mexico border to access healthcare services in Mexico for their children. Yet, more vulnerable caregivers (i.e., those without documentation status in the US) and their children, accessing healthcare services in the US was not an option limiting caregivers' ability to meet their children's healthcare needs. In such cases, geography acts as a structural determinant of health. This study shows the importance of geography in health. Rural unincorporated colonias located in the borderlands are precariously located and lack basic critical infrastructure including healthcare access. Within such places, historically and socially marginalized populations become invisible, are subject to the health effects of environmental hazards, and are limited depending on their positionality and thus vulnerability to healthcare services. • Municipal unincorporation contributes to health disparities among Latinx families in US-Mexico borderlands. • Latinx children in colonias are disproportionately exposed to environmental toxins. • Geography acts as a structural determinant of health for Latinx families in colonias. • A binational approach to health services should be prioritized for families in the borderlands. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines how perceived social equity (distributional equity, procedural equity, and recognitional equity) affects acceptance of protected areas by local communities. We also consider the consequences of these perceptions on the behaviour of local people in relation to biodiversity conservation. Despite increasing importance being given to social issues in protected area management, there is limited evidence about the effect of perceived equity on local support for conservation initiatives. Questionnaires (mostly face-to-face interviews) were undertaken with 426 households living in and around the Giant Panda National Park, which lies across the Sichuan, Shanxi and Gansu provinces of China. Structural equation modelling revealed that local residents with positive perceptions of procedural and distributional equity were more willing to support conservation and engage in conservation behaviours. Surprisingly, perceived recognitional equity had no effect on acceptance and negatively impacted conservation behaviour. This highlights that, although it is essential to promote recognitional equity, the complexities around this must be considered further. The context (e.g. age, education, village of residence) moderates the relationships between procedural equity, distributional equity and local acceptance. We suggest that, in order to achieve better park-people relationships, in addition to addressing equity concerns, it is also necessary to implement supplementary measures, such as community co-management and benefit sharing with host communities. • Procedural and distributional equity facilitate acceptance of protected areas. • Recognitional equity has an intricate relationship with local support. • Perceived justice tends to be non-linear in relation to local support. • The location of communities influences local pro-conservation behaviours. • There is a need for a better understanding of the equity-acceptance relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions (NBS) are championed for providing co-benefits to cities and residents, yet their environmental justice impacts are increasingly debated. In this paper, we explore whether and how hybrid governance approaches, such as Mosaic Governance, may contribute to just transformations and sustainable cities through fostering long-term collaborations between local governments, local communities, and grassroots initiatives. Based on case studies in three major European cities, we propose and then exemplify six possible pathways to increase environmental justice: greening the neighborhood, diversifying values and practices, empowering people, bridging across communities, linking to institutions, and scaling of inclusive discourses and practices. Despite the diversity of environmental justice outcomes across cases, our results consistently show that Mosaic Governance particularly contributes to recognition justice through diversifying NBS practices in alignment with community values and aspirations. The results demonstrate the importance of a wider framing of justice in the development of NBS, sensitive to social, cultural, economic and political inequities as well understanding potential pathways to enhance not only environmental justice, but also social justice at large. Especially in marginalised communities, Mosaic Governance holds much potential to advance social justice by enabling empowering, bridging, and linking pathways across diverse communities and NBS practices. [Display omitted] • Mosaic Governance strengthens collaborations between civil society and governments. • Procedural justice may be better served by participation than by plural valuation. • Case studies illustrate impacts depend on enactment of Mosaic Governance approaches. • Grassroots contribute to empowerment, bridging and linking marginalised communities. • Environmental justice cannot be separated from social justice issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Environmental and climate crises are grist for tech solutions. • AI technologies require computational resources that are environmentally embedded. • Disasters become "shocks" that the AI industry capitalizes on. • Climate AI shapes material investment flows and landscapes. • Data-driven approaches to climate reproduce injustices faced by marginalized communities. Emerging narratives around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning place great faith in these technologies' ability to ameliorate threats posed by climate change. They promise the capacity to analyze vast amounts of more precise and real-time data, improving how decision-makers predict, respond, and adapt. Yet scholars in political ecology have long observed that technocentric approaches typically reduce complex human-environment relationships in ways that fail to account for social relations and power dynamics. This paper charts the emerging political economy of "climate AI" – the philanthropies, NGOs, private consultancies, and tech giants investing in data-driven climate initiatives. Mapping out two case studies, we show that environmental and climate crises are grist for tech solutions and find that many climate AI actors are interested in it for surveillance, greenwashing, and commodifying algorithms. We pay special attention to how neocolonial and racialized power structures manifest in climate AI and outline three ways for political ecologists and digital geographers to research its socio-materiality: how computational resources are environmentally embedded, how disasters become "shocks" that the AI industry capitalizes on, and how climate AI shapes material investment flows and landscapes. Highlighting how data-driven approaches to climate crises reproduce injustices already faced by marginalized communities, our analysis contributes to research on environmental data justice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainability transitions research to date has paid insufficient attention to the intrinsic benefits of grassroots innovations (GIs) in disadvantaged contexts and to issues of structural inequalities, grounded experiences of unsustainability, and place-based politics. This paper takes inspiration from critical transition studies to address these gaps by reconceptualizing grassroots niches as hybrid spaces involving both socio-spatial differentiation and socio-technical reconfigurations linked to capitalist industrialization. It then proposes a place-centered enabling approach to investigate how grassroots actors create, mobilize for, and assign meanings to GIs. Three interrelated analytical foci directing the approach – the development history of the host community, its place-framing, and its place-making politics – are applied to a case study of a community energy project in rural Taiwan. By demonstrating GIs' potential to empower marginalized communities to pursue their place-based visions for sustainability, this paper adds socio-spatial and structural insights to discussions on the transformative politics of GIs. • Proposes a justice-sensitive approach to studying grassroots innovations initiated by disadvantaged communities. • Adds a bottom-up perspective to the geographical exploration of grassroots innovations. • Provides a new way to study grassroots innovations that recognizes both their socio-spatial and socio-technical entanglements in a capitalist society. • Reveals the structural link and potential tradeoffs between socio-spatial transformations and socio-technical transitions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]