The Environmental Justice Network is a group of community campaigners from across Scotland who are pushing for improved environmental regulations and enforcement. In this film, the stories of five campaigns weave together, revealing the systemic issues that people face when trying to access environmental justice in Scotland.
Credits
Environmental Justice Network
Campaign for Clean Streets — George Niblock
Friends of St Fittick’s Park — Richard Caie, Ishbel Shand
Help Trees Help Us — Audrey Baird
Save Our Shore Leith (SOSLeith) — Geo Camp, Jim Jarvie, Celia Mainland
Wyndford Residents Union — Caz Rae, Pam Yule
Co-created by the Environmental Justice Network and the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
Produced by the Environmental Rights Centre for Scotland
Film by JHPVisuals
About the film
The Environmental Justice Network is a group of community campaigners who have used ERCS’s free legal Advice Service in trying to address their local environmental issues. Their knowledge of why and how environmental regulation in Scotland must be improved comes from first-hand experiences – of laws that are insufficient to prevent environmental damage, of lack of enforcement by regulators, and of the barriers of holding public bodies to account in a court of law.
By being part of the Environmental Justice Network, the campaigners have identified commonalities between their campaigns. Even though they face different environmental problems, the issues they encounter with Scotland’s legal system are similar regardless of where they live.
Their film speaks about these shared challenges they have faced standing up for the environment and our right to a healthy environment.
Scotland needs an enforceable right to a healthy environment
The Environmental Justice Network film was premiered at the Scottish Parliament on 13 November 2024 as part of ERCS’s event on securing environmental justice in Scotland, sponsored by Sarah Boyack MSP.
The clients to ERCS’s Advice Service provide us with invaluable information about the extent of environmental problems in Scotland. With this film, the Environmental Justice Network show what systematic problems with environmental regulation look like in their communities. The outcome they call for, as Caz Rae from the Wyndford Residents Union stated at the parliamentary event, is to “have our environmental rights protected and stand in solidarity”.
Watch the film and read our recommendations for the law reforms urgently needed to deliver an enforceable right to a healthy environment.
