Sustainability and Environmental Justice in an Ever-Changing Global Landscape

Over the next 50 years, lawyers will have to devise new strategies to prevent and mitigate pollution, climate change and the loss of biodiversity.

We are entering a new epoch known as the Anthropocene. This geological unit of time refers to how humans have come to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Climate change is now a global problem, a systemic crisis to which our mechanisms for law, sustainability, equity and justice must react.

In this setting, environmental law is becoming an increasingly important field. On the one hand, technological and industrial advancements often have unintended environmental consequences that the law needs to address. On the other hand, science and technology can provide the innovative solutions we need to mitigate environmental damage in the form of clean energy alternatives, pollution control technologies and more. Environmental laws are the legal frameworks established by societies to protect the natural environment. They help govern and regulate natural resources and how human beings interact with and use them. They are the tools available to governments in order to curb pollution and protect the quality of the air we breathe, the water we drink and the food we eat.

As lawyers, we have a duty to ensure human activities are conducted in a manner that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to provide for themselves. It is in regard to the latter where environmental law is exceptional, given that it not only tackles current or past harmful activities but also looks ahead to the future.

Furthermore, we know environmental degradation disproportionately affects vulnerable communities. Environmental justice, which seeks the fair distribution of environmental quality amongst social groups, will be a central issue in the coming years. Environmental law, regulation and policy must take all peoples into account. Fair treatment means no population should bear a disproportionate share of negative environmental consequences from industrial, municipal and commercial operations or from implementing laws and policies. The aspiration to redress inequalities will materialize by ensuring that everyone is able to benefit from equal access to global goods, clean air and water, as well as access to decision making that will establish environmental justice for all.

As a global issue, the governance of climate change must of course involve a multitude of international actors. A specific feature of the state-led response to environmental crises is how help is sought in industry experts. It stands to reason that one should turn to scientists in the fight against climate change in much the same way one turns to military experts in the event of a conflict. However, the reliance on expert-based administration raises questions regarding the preservation of democratic governance. Transferring decisions that should remain in the domain of politically and democratically accountable decision making could indeed represent a form of democratic decay.

Even in times of crisis, democratically established institutions must preserve the rule of law and ensure respect for fundamental rights. When the decision making falls to experts, we must reimagine the architecture of governance and the system of legitimacy we are used to in liberal democracies.