In this in-depth analysis of First Nations opposition to the oil sands industry, James Heydon offers detailed empirical insight into Canadian oil sands regulation. The environmental consequences of the oil sands industry have been thoroughly explored by scholars from a variety of disciplines. However, less well understood is how and why the provincial energy regulator has repeatedly sanctioned such a harmful pattern of production for almost two decades. This research monograph addresses that shortcoming. Drawing from interviews with government, industry, and First Nation personnel, along with an analysis of almost 20 years of policy, strategy, and regulatory approval documents, Sustainable Development as Environmental Harm offers detailed empirical insight into Canadian oil sands regulation. Providing a thorough account of the ways in which the regulatory process has prioritised economic interests over the land-based cultural interests of First Nations, it addresses a gap in the literature by explaining how environmental harm has been systematically produced over time by a regulatory process tasked with the pursuit of ‘sustainable development’. With an approach emphasizing the importance of understanding how and why the regulatory process has been able to circumvent various protections for the entire duration in which the contemporary oil sands industry has existed, this work complements existing literature and provides a platform from which future investigations into environmental harm may be conducted. It is essential reading for those with an interest in green criminology, environmental harm, indigenous rights, and regulatory controls relating to fossil fuel production.

This volume provides a comprehensive account of the linkages between environment and sustainable development in society from an interdisciplinary perspective. With its case studies from across the world, including countries such as India, Australia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the United States, Croatia, Italy, Brazil, Japan, and Kenya, it explores critical environmental issues concerning energy justice, queer ecology, mountain cultures, incarceration, energy strategies, mining tourism, pollution control mechanisms, social impacts of oil and gas production, contract farming, gender mainstreaming, climate change, and droughts and adaptation strategies along with literacy, leisure, well-being, development, sexuality, sustainability and environmental education. The book examines several dimensions within global environment of the adverse impact of developmental activities, discusses sustainable development activities undertaken in contemporary times, and underscores the importance of a just, people-centric policy framework in promoting sustainable development. Lucid and topical, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers of environmental studies, development studies, sustainable development, political studies, sociology, and political economy. It will also interest policymakers, development practitioners, NGOs and think tanks working on environment and sustainable development, climate issues and SDGs.

Assessing and Measuring Environmental Impact and Sustainability answers the question “what are the available methodologies to assess the environmental sustainability of a product, system or process?” Multiple well-known authors share their expertise in order to give a broad perspective of this issue from a chemical and environmental engineering perspective. This mathematical, quantitative book includes many case studies to assist with the practical application of environmental and sustainability methods. Readers learn how to efficiently assess and use these methods. This book summarizes all relevant environmental methodologies to assess the sustainability of a product and tools, in order to develop more green products or processes. With life cycle assessment as its main methodology, this book speaks to engineers interested in environmental impact and sustainability. Helps engineers to assess, evaluate, and measure sustainability in industry Provides workable approaches to environmental and sustainability assessment Readers learn tools to assess the sustainability of a process or product and to design it in an environmentally friendly way

Despite the global endorsement of the Sustainable Development Goals, environmental justice struggles are growing all over the world. These struggles are not isolated injustices, but symptoms of interlocking forms of oppression that privilege the few while inflicting misery on the many and threatening ecological collapse. This handbook offers critical perspectives on the multi-dimensional, intersectional nature of environmental injustice and the cross-cutting forms of oppression that unite and divide these struggles, including gender, race, poverty, and indigeneity. The work sheds new light on the often-neglected social dimension of sustainability and its relationship to human rights and environmental justice. Using a variety of legal frameworks and case studies from around the world, this volume illustrates the importance of overcoming the fragmentation of these legal frameworks and social movements in order to develop holistic solutions that promote justice and protect the planet's ecosystems at a time of intensifying economic and ecological crisis.

The prevailing global environmental crisis is primarily because of non-standardized parameters for environmental regulation. Unplanned expansion of economic activities, consideration for environmental conservation and several associated problems are emerging due to degradation in quality of ambient environment such as clean air, safe drinking water and quality of food, particularly in developing nations. Due to poor/casual execution of EIA protocol, newly developing countries are preferred destination for establishing pollution emitting industries, which results in degradation and depletion of natural resources. Lack of environmental policy intervention is another major attraction for establishing such industries in these nations. In order to ensure sustainable development, the highest priority issues include the monitoring and eradication of environmental problems which arise due to economic development. Initiation of any form of economic development primarily results in loss of forests and thus biodiversity, followed by deterioration in quality of air and contamination of natural resources. The worst impact of non-standardized economic development is the contamination of air, water and soil. Sustainable development ensures responsible interface with the environment to minimize the depletion or degradation of natural resources and ensure long term environmental quality. It involves integrated approaches in understanding the importance of environmental management systems and policy inventions leading to improved environmental performance. The present book is proposed to address the environmental concerns associated with economic development and approaches involved to attain sustainable economic development, which include monitoring of the quality of air, deforestation, quality of water resources, soil erosion and degradation of the natural environment.

This volume examines the impact of globalization on international environmental law and the implementation of sustainable development in the Global South. Comprising contributions from lawyers from the Global South or who have experience in the Global South, this volume is organized into three parts, with a thematic inquiry woven through every chapter to ask how law can enable economies that can be sustained, given the limited carrying capacity of the earth. Part I describes and characterizes the status quo of environmental and economic problems in the Global South during the process of globalization. Some of those problems include redistribution of environmental burden on the public through over-reliance on the state in emerging economies and the transition to public-private partnerships, as well as extreme uncontrolled economic expansion. Building on Part I, Part II takes an international perspective by presenting some tools that are in place during the process of globalization that lead to friction and interfaces between developed and developing economies in environmental law. Recognizing the impossibility of a globalized Northern economy, the authors in Part III present some alternatives through framework ideas of human and civil rights, environmental rights, and indigenous persons’ rights, as well as concrete and specific legal tools to strengthen justice and rule of law institutions. The book gives new perspectives to familiar approaches through concrete examples by professional practitioners and theoretical discourse by academic researchers, and can thereby form the basis for changes in practices, as well as further discussions and comparisons. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of environmental law, sustainable development, and globalization and international relations, as well as legal professionals and practitioners.

In recent years, attention to climate change and its associated impacts on economic and social development has increased significantly. Extreme weather conditions worldwide are threatening the survival of sensitive species and habitats. The situation is so dire that governments, academia, and non-governmental organizations across the globe are actively working to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. This book enhances understanding of environmental changes and the relative response to the socio-economic challenges of development. It provides a comprehensive overview of the impact of environmental change on natural resources and the climate, as well as discusses waste management and sustainable solutions.