The struggle to create mechanisms and a platform for establishing environmental justice is needed at this moment like never before.
The current socio-economic system is characterized by a social arrangement that enables the deepening of economic and political inequality in the interest of a small number of people, at the expense of the health of the planet Earth as well as the remaining 99% of its population. Those who contribute the least to the intertwined crises we face (climatic, environmental, political, economic) are usually those who are most strongly affected by their consequences. This systemic arrangement is taking root in everyday life, both around the world and in our country. The COVID-19 pandemic not only exposed these injustices but also intensified and deepened them. The struggle to create mechanisms and a platform for establishing environmental justice is needed at this moment like never before.
In a recently published report (September 2020), Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute (SEI) presented the findings behind carbon inequality, indicating that “just 1% of the global population (the richest) have twice the contribution (responsibility) for climate change crisis from the total contribution of the bottom half – 50% of the global population (that is, the world’s poor)”, says the article of The Climate Herald . It is no secret that in a neoliberal capitalist system, capital, that is, those who own it, are the ones who hold the power to make decisions that affect people’s lives and ecosystems. So, unfortunately, corporations that are behind the pollution of water, air and soil, rarely truly take responsibility for their actions and illegal industrial actions, which exploit both people (workers) and nature. This is largely due to the inconsistency and inadequate professional and material capacities of the relevant institutions, but also their lack of immunity to deep corruption, both at the local and central levels. The same results in ineffective implementation and enforcement of the adopted laws and legal measures in the sphere of the environment.
But that’s not all. The very report (2020) of the European Commission on North Macedonia indicates “limited progress” of the state in transposing and harmonizing the EU legislation with the national one, in the sphere of the environment. The Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, as well as the State Environmental Inspectorate, have limited competencies and a lack of the necessary capacities to deal with violations of existing laws and by-laws in the sphere of the environment (including civil, administrative and regulatory violations). Judges and public prosecutors, on the other hand, in order to act on violations of the laws in this sphere, need specialization and strengthened appropriate knowledge of EU legislation on the environment and climate change, as well as the formation of basic knowledge about the biggest crises of today – the environmental and the climate.
Environmental justice
These conditions leave us with little choice for a socially just and ecologically sustainable movement towards the future. The need to establish an intersectoral, functional environmental body is now greater than ever; a space where the participation of citizens and the expert public in making decisions related to the environment is at the heart of its existence. The cooperation of the same with the responsible institutions (which, by the way, need a complete reconfiguration) increases the possibilities for creating a comprehensive and objective analysis of the necessary procedures after violations of the laws in this field, as well as planning a roadmap for improving the conditions for respect the constitutionally guaranteed right to a healthy environment for everyone (Article 43). Only an intersectoral body that acts without compromises only in the interest of citizens can bring real solutions to deal with problems such as deep energy poverty , fatally polluted air and the actions of the mining lobby in the country.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (1998) defines environmental justice as “the fair treatment and meaningful inclusion of all people without regard to race, color, national origin, or income in the development, implementation, and enforcement of laws, regulations, and policies for the environment. Equitable treatment means that no group of people, including [any] racial, ethnic, or socioeconomic group, shall have a disproportionate share of the negative environmental impacts resulting from industrial, municipal, and commercial operations or the performance of national, state, local and tribal programs and policies.” We have our hands full in establishing and achieving environmental justice in the society in which we live.
The Environmental Justice Platform was founded
One step in the right direction is the recently established platform for establishing efficient and effective environmental justice. In mid-December last year, it was presented by the initiator organization – the Center for Legal Research and Analysis, in close cooperation with the Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, and financially supported by the Good Program UK Government Governance Fund. The time frame for implementing the project is from October 1 last year to the end of March this year.
The Center for Legal Research and Analysis says about the idea behind the project:
“The project is based on the three pillars of the Aarhus Convention that the Republic of North Macedonia ratified in 1999, on the right of access to information related to environmental issues. The project will focus on environmental justice and its supervision from the perspective of equality and inclusion, considering the impact of the proposed measures on the rights of people at risk of social exclusion (women and girls, Roma, people with disabilities, youth, families with low income, etc.), fostering dialogue and space for decision-makers to find common ground on policy issues in partnership with these underrepresented groups.”
The project also aims to identify problems related to the supervision of the implementation of environmental legislation and, through the implementation of a broad consultative process, provide recommendations that will improve the environmental audit and the implementation of the environmental regulatory framework.
“The key focus of environmental protection should be placed on prevention and audit, as well as on the adoption of sustainable measures and structures that will effectively respond to violations and violations of environmental laws,” said the Center for Legal Research and Analysis.
It is expected that this will then result in the introduction of a policy model for efficient supervision and enforcement of environmental policies and regulations, strengthening the implementation of international environmental standards.
Academician Dr. Vlado Kambovski noted that the Platform and the project itself aim to bring the concept of environmental justice closer to the national institutions and the citizens themselves in North Macedonia. According to Dr. Kambovski, “[The platform is] a call for the general engagement of all factors that can contribute to the creation of public policies in this area, the regulation of legislation, the constitution of stable and efficient institutions, the efficient application of laws, all that as a necessity that is imposed in the knowledge that until now according to the grades that R.S.M. about the conditions in the protection of the environment and nature were far from favorable in the reports of the European Commission.”
According to the Deputy Minister of Environment and Spatial Planning, Mrs. Hristina Odzaklieska, the platform is of great importance in the implementation of criminal policy in the area of the environment.
“With the creation of the Platform for Environmental Justice, it is necessary to overcome the weaknesses that have been determined in the past years, that is, to take into account the previous experience and to create a model for efficient cooperation between all relevant competent institutions that should be involved in order to properly implement policy and regulation in the field of environmental protection,” says the deputy minister.
Theory of change: a broad consultative process is the way to achieve environmental justice
The Center says that the activities during this project are planned to be implemented through a broad participatory process including bodies of state institutions, the academic community, the justice sector, as well as civil society organizations engaged in developing the most appropriate and efficient legal and institutional reform of policies for environmental surveillance.
Stakeholders in the project are the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia, the Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Ministry of Justice, the State Environmental Inspectorate, the Ministry of Economy, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Water Management, the Forest Police, The State Statistics Office, national courts and public prosecutors and the Center for Crisis Management.
The current structure of the Environmental Justice Platform is as follows:
Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning
State Environmental Inspectorate
Center for Crisis Management
Directorate for Protection and Rescue
Ministry of Interior Ministry of Justice
Macedonian Academy of Sciences and Arts
Academy for judges and public prosecutors
Center for Legal Research and Analysis
Macedonian Association of Young Lawyers
Eco awareness
Front 21/42
The City of Skopje
ZELS
Experts
The aim of the bodies that are part of the platform would be to be involved in performing an analysis of the regulatory impact of current laws related to the supervision of environmental policies to ensure urgent systematic solutions.
“Our strategy and theory of change is a recognition of the importance of a multi-sectoral approach and the active involvement of numerous state and other relevant institutions in achieving the intended goals. Our approach considers project activities as the beginning of a movement for environmental justice reform, which should continue to develop into a strategic working group, capable of challenging the systemic causes of social and environmental injustices that now exist across North Macedonia,” they say from the Center for Legal Research and Analysis.
What next? Sustainability of activities
In the coming period, the platform will publish the conducted analysis of shortcomings and challenges of the institutional and legal framework, and in the meantime, it is also working on developing alternative policies for efficient supervision and implementation of environmental policies and regulations and preparing a roadmap for environmental policy support of policymakers in planning the best national measures and activities.
The Center says that the environmental justice platform is open for additional involvement in its work and that the idea is for the project to work jointly with other complementary projects and initiatives in the field of the environment. The participatory digital platform for building a collective vision for a socially just and ecologically healthy future, as well as the creation of the national and regional Green Agreement – Green Voice (zelenglas.mk), as well as the Green Humane City initiative that emerged from the Civic Budget Forum “My Community. My Vision” held last September, are two other particularly promising civic initiatives with a focus on direct democracy and participatory decision-making, especially by the most vulnerable citizens, most affected by socio-economic and environmental injustices.
Regarding the sustainability of the Center’s environmental justice initiative and the fate of the Platform after the completion of the project, the Center reports:
“The end of the project does not mean the end of the work of the Platform. The program and rules of procedure for the work of the Platform, which are in the process of being developed, envisage at least once a month a meeting of the members of the platform, at which current issues in the field of the environment will be discussed (especially if it is a matter of amending or supplementing a relevant legal or bylaw).”
For more information about the project and the Platform at the following link:
Воспоставување ефикасна и ефективна еколошка правда
Author
Simona Getova
Simona is a PhD student in the field of political ecology at the Department of Political and Social Sciences at the Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. She is an organizer for climate and social justice and works at the intersections of political education, governance and collective action for socially just and ecologically healthy communities in the Balkans and beyond. Simona is the co-founder of The Climate Herald and Kolektiv Z. Twitter: @SimonaGetova
This product was prepared within the framework of the project “Establishment of efficient and effective environmental justice” financed by the Government of the United Kingdom, with the support of the British Embassy Skopje. The opinions and views expressed in this content do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of the British Government.