UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Environmental justice and the SDGs: from synergies to gaps and contradictions

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.1007/s11625-020-00789-8

Authors

Mary Menton · Carlos Larrea · Sara Latorre · Joan Martínez Alier · Mika R. Peck · Leah Temper · Mariana Walter

Reported year

2020

Reported language

en

Source type

article

First detected

2026-11-09T19:19:42.915071+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:19:42.915071+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Institutions reported by the source

Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Ecuador · McGill University · Universidad Andina Simón Bolívar, Sede Ecuador · Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona · University of Sussex

Documentary abstract — original language

Abstract Through their synergies, trade-offs, and contradictions, the sustainable development goals (SDGs) have the potential to lead to environmental justices and injustices. Yet, environmental justice (EJ), and social justice more broadly, are not currently embedded within the language and spirit of the SDGs. We part from the premise that “many ‘environmental’ problems are, by their very nature, problems of justice” (Lele, Wiley Interdiscip Rev Water 4:e1224, 2017). We review progress in EJ frameworks in recent years, arguing for the need to move beyond a focus on the four principles of mainstream EJ (distribution, procedure, recognition, and capabilities) towards a more intersectional decolonial approach to environmental justice that recognises the indispensability of both humans and non-humans. EJ frameworks, and the SDGs should recognise power dynamics, complex interactions among injustices, and listens to the different ‘senses of justice’ and desires of theorists, activists, and other stakeholder from the Global South. We analyze how EJ frameworks are, or fail to be, incorporated in the SDGs with a focus on the food–water–health nexus (SDG2, 3, 6); climate-energy (SDG7, 13), conservation (SDG14, 15); and poverty and inequality (SDG1, 10). We call attention to the ‘elephant in the room’—the failure to go beyond GDP but instead include economic growth as a goal (SDG8). We argue that sustainable degrowth and intersectional decolonial environmental justices would create better conditions for the transformative changes needed to reach the broader aim of the SDGs: to leave no one behind.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W3016195942

DOI

10.1007/s11625-020-00789-8

Documentary context

Documentary family

Scholarship

Source-reported types

article

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.1007/s11625-020-00789-8
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W3016195942

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w127294058 · CITES
• openalex:w1495278944 · CITES
• openalex:w152607467 · CITES
• openalex:w1530287735 · CITES
• openalex:w1535803599 · CITES
• openalex:w1566125242 · CITES
• openalex:w1588387195 · CITES
• openalex:w1597682475 · CITES
• openalex:w1602775671 · CITES
• openalex:w1669600247 · CITES
• openalex:w172361940 · CITES
• openalex:w1761490494 · CITES
• openalex:w1862702728 · CITES
• openalex:w1881738340 · CITES
• openalex:w1925757661 · CITES
• openalex:w1959649657 · CITES
• openalex:w1968079685 · CITES
• openalex:w1970592073 · CITES
• openalex:w1980186344 · CITES
• openalex:w1982816121 · CITES

12 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

This identity is not yet included in the Legal Library.