Working together on a cross-border initiative, Community Law & Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice (Ireland) and EJNI (Northern Ireland) have created the Manual of Environmental Justice. Environmental justice ensures the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people in the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations and policies.
As a shared island, we face common environmental and climate challenges. In line with global trends, Ireland’s temperature is rising and, depending on emission trajectory, it is possible that temperatures will climb above the IPCC’s 1.5 degree limit of global warming. According to projections by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the island will face increased flooding and storms and water quality will be adversely impacted.
In this intensifying climate and biodiversity emergency, mobilisation within communities and collective cross-border action is vital. Communities must be empowered to vindicate their environmental rights, participate in decisions that affect them and seek accountability when environmental obligations are not met.
However, in a cross-border needs assessment report carried out in 2022, titled ‘Environmental Justice on the island of Ireland’, 78% of activists, NGOs, academics and broader civil society groups working on environmental issues across the island cited ‘lack of accessibility to expertise and/or information’ as a main obstacle to carrying out their work. While 64% of respondents indicated that they are involved in cross-border environmental work, many said that their organisation faced barriers in undertaking environmental or climate related work, such as under-resourcing, lack of expertise, lack of consideration of the intersectionality of environmental and other issues at policy-making level and absence of reliable, accessible information.
Research by Environmental Justice Network Ireland, Linking the Irish Environment, further found that cooperation on shared environmental challenges between governments north and south of the border remains largely under-developed.
Taking these findings into account, Community Law & Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice (Ireland) and EJNI (Northern Ireland) embarked on a cross-border initiative to create the Manual of Environmental Justice. The aim of this digital toolkit is to resource and connect organisations and communities across the island of Ireland on intersectional environmental issues.
The Manual is free to use and provides an expert directory for people working in environmental and social justice, an advocacy map which shows locations of environmental and social groups across Ireland and a resources hub which contains a range of expert and journalistic articles, blogs, podcasts and videos.
The toolkit is easy to navigate, with categorisations for each environmental issue, such as, air pollution, anti-mining and more, across the island of Ireland. Organisations who want to be listed in the Manual of Environmental Justice can head over to the Manual’s website to describe their work and provide contact details so others can get in touch.
As Dr Alison Hough put it at a 2019 hearing of the Oireachtas Committee on the Implementation of the Good Friday Agreement, “Despite political arrangements, there are no borders in nature, and what happens in the environment of one jurisdiction unavoidably impacts the other. The only way to preserve the environmental integrity of both Northern Ireland and Ireland is through a coherent system of environmental management.”
Community Law & Mediation’s Centre for Environmental Justice is the first of its kind in Ireland. It offers weekly free legal advice clinics, specifically focusing on the environment, in order to aid people with an understanding of their environmental rights, environmental issues which may be affecting them and environmental justice. Appointments for the free legal advice clinics can be booked by contacting 01 847 7804 of emailing info@communitylawandmediation.ie
To read more research about a cross-border approach, climate action and environmental justice, visit the Manual of Environmental Justice by clicking here.
Fodhla O’Connell-Grennell is the Communications Officer at Community Law & Mediation.