About the Environmental Justice Programme

29 September 2009
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The Environmental Justice Project is part of the Economic Justice, Corporate Power and Alternatives Programme. TNI's emerging work on the corporate expansion into air, water and nature as a whole builds on work dating back to the early 1990s on the privatisation of nature, more recent work on critiquing carbon trading, and current work on land and water grabbing. It also links closely to TNI’s new programme on corporate power and accountability.

TNI’s Carbon Trade Watch project (hosted at TNI from 2003 to 2009) was widely recognised for its high quality critical analysis of market solutions to the climate crisis.

Now, TNI's broader work in the field of environmental justice further deepens the analysis of the corporate capture of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) process. This includes the cynical appropriation of the concept of ‘green economy’ to justify the commodification of what is perceived as threatened scarce natural resources, and extends to attempts by the military-security industry to profit from this and from (the fear of) climate disaster. Meanwhile, TNI is also beginning to explore alternative energy models, learning from its work on reforming public water services.

Recent publications from Environmental Justice

The Sugarcane Industry and the global economic crisis

An examination of ethanol production in Brazil, highlighting the role of financial capital, the territorial expansion of agribusiness and the impacts on labour relations and indigenous peoples and peasant farmers.

A Landmark Victory for Justice: Biowatch’s Battle with the South African State and Monsanto

Published by  Biowatch South Africa, this is a book about access to information, the right to know, and action in the public’s interest – a must-read for anyone campaigning for environmental or social justice.

Protecting carbon to destroy forests

This paper provides historical background and reports of experiences on the ground to show how land and nature enclosures are central to REDD+, and why it therefore cannot be fixed.

Myth Busting: EU's Emissions Trading System

Since the adoption of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), emissions have risen and the price of consumer energy went up along with the profits of many industrial actors.