Environmental justice in the Global South: An evaluation of legal and contemporary developments

Environmental justice is a new paradigm for achieving healthy and sustainable environment or communities and it is a culmination of more than 500 years of struggle by people of color in the United States of America(USA) to achieve this
(Ekhator, Afr J Int Comp Law 22:63–79, 2014). Historically, environmental justice emerged as a counter measure to the discontent and inherent racism entrenched in government policies in the Deep South of the USA in the 1960s and 1970s. The significance of the doctrine varies depending on the context or the country in focus (Ekhator, Nnamdi Azikiwe Univ J Int Law Juris 8:28–37, 2017).
The environmental justice doctrine has flourished and it has spread to all corners of the world, especially areas with a history of environmental abuse or
degradation.

This chapter focuses on the environmental justice paradigm in the Global South and highlights some of the recent trends and legal developments in this sphere. Some of the issues in focus include the conceptualization of environmental justice doctrine from the USA, United Kingdom (UK), and Global South
perspectives (for example, African environmental ethics and decolonial environmental justice in Latin America). Also, the utility of the right to the environment as one of the strategies for promoting environmental justice in the Global South is in focus in the chapter.

This chapter argues that from its origins in social movements and academic scholarship arising primarily from the USA and now encompassing several disciplines and issues, environmental justice concept is widely accepted and applied in the Global South (arguably with contextual modifications).