scholarly journals Energy Solutions, Neo-Liberalism, and Social Diversity in Toronto, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Teelucksingh ◽  
Blake Poland
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Smart Growth ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Municipal Policy ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
State Initiatives ◽  
Green Capitalism ◽  
Spatial Exclusion

In response to the dominance of green capitalist discourses in Canada’s environmental movement, in this paper, we argue that strategies to improve energy policy must also provide mechanisms to address social conflicts and social disparities. Environmental justice is proposed as an alternative to mainstream environmentalism, one that seeks to address systemic social and spatial exclusion encountered by many racialized immigrants in Toronto as a result of neo-liberal and green capitalist municipal policy and that seeks to position marginalized communities as valued contributors to energy solutions. We examine Toronto-based municipal state initiatives aimed at reducing energy use while concurrently stimulating growth (specifically, green economy/green jobs and ‘smart growth’). By treating these as instruments of green capitalism, we illustrate the utility of environmental justice applied to energy-related problems and as a means to analyze stakeholders’ positions in the context of neo-liberalism and green capitalism, and as opening possibilities for resistance.

scholarly journals Energy Solutions, Neo-Liberalism, and Social Diversity in Toronto, Canada

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Teelucksingh ◽  
Blake Poland
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Smart Growth ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Municipal Policy ◽  
Marginalized Communities ◽  
State Initiatives ◽  
Green Capitalism ◽  
Spatial Exclusion

In response to the dominance of green capitalist discourses in Canada’s environmental movement, in this paper, we argue that strategies to improve energy policy must also provide mechanisms to address social conflicts and social disparities. Environmental justice is proposed as an alternative to mainstream environmentalism, one that seeks to address systemic social and spatial exclusion encountered by many racialized immigrants in Toronto as a result of neo-liberal and green capitalist municipal policy and that seeks to position marginalized communities as valued contributors to energy solutions. We examine Toronto-based municipal state initiatives aimed at reducing energy use while concurrently stimulating growth (specifically, green economy/green jobs and ‘smart growth’). By treating these as instruments of green capitalism, we illustrate the utility of environmental justice applied to energy-related problems and as a means to analyze stakeholders’ positions in the context of neo-liberalism and green capitalism, and as opening possibilities for resistance.

Indeterminate Subjects, Irreducible Worlds

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 75-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Yusoff
Keyword(s):  
Political Economy ◽  
Gulf Of Mexico ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Sense Organs ◽  
The World

Lodged in an impasse between questions of environmental justice and modes of capitalisation in the green economy, indeterminacy is a vulnerable and porous relation. Pollution activates a potentiality in the organism to be otherwise, to generate certain kinds of tumours, mini-deaths or mutations. Toxicity has an intermediary status that launches a mobility of effects that is often fragmented through sense organs, affirming forms of non-identity in biopolitical relations. Organisms are receptive to such bodily reconfigurations precisely because they are open to the material communication of the world. In contrast to the “hidden labour” of indeterminacy in capitalist modes of capture, this article crafts an analytics of indeterminacy as an interjection in the politics of environments. Through dispersants in the Gulf of Mexico and military bees, two economies of indeterminacy are discussed. Drawing on Georges Bataille’s notion of political economy, I argue that what is required is an economy of radical inequivalence; an excessive engagement with the possibilities of indetermining forces to make fleeting marks.

scholarly journals Environmental justice and REDD+ safeguards in Laos: Lessons from an authoritarian political regime

AMBIO ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sabaheta Ramcilovic-Suominen ◽  
Sophia Carodenuto ◽  
Constance McDermott ◽  
Juha Hiedanpää
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Minority Groups ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Authoritarian Regime ◽  
Political Regime ◽  
External Control ◽  
Climate Mitigation ◽  
Political Debate ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
Marginalized Communities

AbstractBalancing agendas for climate mitigation and environmental justice continues to be one of the key challenges in climate change governance mechanisms, such as Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Degradation (REDD+). In this paper we apply the three-dimensional environmental justice framework as a lens to examine the REDD+ process in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic (Laos) and the REDD+ social safeguards. We focus particularly on challenges to justice faced by marginalized communities living in forest frontier areas under an authoritarian regime. Drawing on policy analysis and open-ended interviews across different policy levels, we explore procedural, distributional, and recognitional justice across the REDD+ policy levels in Laos. We find that REDD+ social safeguards have been applied by both donors and state actors in ways that facilitate external control. We underscore how authoritarian regime control over civil society and ethnic minority groups thwarts justice. We also highlight how this political culture and lack of inclusiveness are used by donors and project managers to implement their projects with little political debate. Further obstacles to justice relate to limitations inherent in the REDD+ instrument, including tight schedules for dealing with highly sensitive socio-political issues under social safeguards. These findings echo other research but go further in questioning the adequacy of safeguards to promote justice under a nationally driven REDD+. We highlight the importance of recognition and political context, including aspects such as power relations, self-determination and self-governance of traditional or customary structures, in shaping justice outcomes.

Global Warming Solutions and the Path to Recovery

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-118
Author(s):  
David Foster
Keyword(s):  
Global Warming ◽  
Economic Model ◽  
Global Economy ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Green Economy ◽  
Global Community ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Economic Opportunities ◽  
Look Back

We will look back on the last year as a period when extraordinary economic events marked the unraveling of one economic model and placed in front of the global community a set of choices. Either we restructure the architecture of the global economy and replace it with something else, or we face a future of devastating economic consequences. The Blue Green Alliance has become one of America's leading advocates for global warming solutions and we believe that the benefits and economic opportunities will far outweigh the costs. We have popularized the terms “green economy” and “green jobs” and we believe that every job in America should turn into a green job.

Going Green to Stay in the Black: Transnational Capitalism and Renewable Energy

2011 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerry Harris
Keyword(s):  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Wind Energy ◽  
Environmental Sustainability ◽  
Social Transformation ◽  
Energy Use ◽  
Sustainable Energy ◽  
Political Rhetoric ◽  
Fair Treatment ◽  
Green Capitalism ◽  
Global Patterns

AbstractSustainable energy use is rapidly developing, often with state support and patriotic political rhetoric. But the solar and wind energy industries are highly transnationalized and already inserted into global patterns of accumulation. While possibly solving some of the most pressing problems between capitalism and environmental sustainability, green capitalism still fails to address the contradiction between labor and capital. Therefore, any progressive strategy for social transformation must link the fair treatment of nature and labor together.

Evaluating unintended outcomes of regional smart-growth strategies: Environmental justice and public health concerns

2016 ◽  
Vol 49 ◽  
pp. 280-290 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad Tayarani ◽  
Amir Poorfakhraei ◽  
Razieh Nadafianshahamabadi ◽  
Gregory M. Rowangould
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Smart Growth ◽  
Growth Strategies ◽  
Health Concerns

Green Performance Strategies in Romanian Economy in the View of EU 2020 Strategy

2017 ◽  
pp. 76-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Violeta Sima ◽  
Ileana Georgiana Gheorghe
Keyword(s):  
Green Economy ◽  
Environmental Taxes ◽  
Green Growth ◽  
Green Jobs ◽  
Greenhouse Gasses ◽  
Agenda 2030 ◽  
Environmental Performance Index ◽  
Green Performance ◽  
Sustainable Economic Growth ◽  
Performance Strategies

This chapter aimed to investigate green performance strategies in the Romanian economy. In the first part, authors exposed specific definitions and concepts related to the green economy, as they appear in the literature in the field. The European context and the main ways of implementation of the green economy are presented as they result from the objectives of The Agenda 2020 UE and The Agenda 2030 UNO. Green Performance in Romania during 2010-2014 is assessed by analyzing the environmental protection expenditures, environmental taxes, greenhouse gasses emissions, green jobs roles, and Environmental Performance Index. The sustainable economic growth effects are materializing in a major growth of the ecological productivity, an increased amount of energy derived from renewable sources, emissions reduction, improved air and water quality, widened access to the benefits of civilization - education, water sanitation. Thus, this green growth “can fight” against climate change. Also, green growth provides opportunities for creating new jobs requiring new skills.

scholarly journals Utilization of the Maryland Environmental Justice Screening Tool: A Bladensburg, Maryland Case Study

2019 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
pp. 348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aubree Driver ◽  
Crystal Mehdizadeh ◽  
Samuel Bara-Garcia ◽  
Coline Bodenreider ◽  
Jessica Lewis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Smart Growth ◽  
Air Toxics ◽  
Prince George's County ◽  
University Of Maryland ◽  
Demographic Indicators ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Maryland School ◽  
The University

Maryland residents’ knowledge of environmental hazards and their health effects is limited, partly due to the absence of tools to map and visualize distribution of risk factors across sociodemographic groups. This study discusses the development of the Maryland EJSCREEN (MD EJSCREEN) tool by the National Center for Smart Growth in partnership with faculty at the University of Maryland School of Public Health. The tool assesses environmental justice risks similarly to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (USEPA) EJSCREEN tool and California’s tool, CalEnviroScreen 3.0. We discuss the architecture and functionality of the tool, indicators of importance, and how it compares to USEPA’s EJSCREEN and CalEnviroScreen. We demonstrate the use of MD EJSCREEN through a case study on Bladensburg, Maryland, a town in Prince George’s County (PG) with several environmental justice concerns including air pollution from traffic and a concrete plant. Comparison reveals that environmental and demographic indicators in MD EJSCREEN most closely resemble those in EPA EJSCREEN, while the scoring is most similar to CalEnviroScreen. Case study results show that Bladensburg has a Prince George’s environmental justice score of 0.99, and that National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) air toxics cancer risk is concentrated in communities of color.

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