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The fight for a bike and pedestrian highway overpass in Montreal
The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (CAPE) is campaigning for the reinstatement of the Dalle-Parc, a green overpass designed to connect Notre-Dame-de-Grâce–Westmount and Verdun–Pointe-Saint-Charles over the Turcot Interchange in Montreal. While the overpass was part of the original 2010 renovation plans, it was removed from the 2015 version by the Quebec Ministry of Transport (MTQ) without explanation. The project is estimated to cost $40 million, representing 1-2% of the total $4 billion interchange refurbishment cost. Proponents argue the overpass would facilitate active transportation, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and prevent cyclists from having to take a 10km detour to cover a 1km distance.
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Document type: Statement
CER COMMENTS ON THE UPDATED MULTI-STAKEHOLDER REFERENCE GROUP TERMS OF REFERENCE FOR THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE HIGHVELD PRIORITY AREA AIR QUALITY MANAGEMENT PLAN
The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), acting on behalf of several community and environmental organisations, submitted comments on 11 December 2015 regarding the updated Terms of Reference (ToR) for the implementation of the Highveld Priority Area (HPA) Air Quality Management Plan (AQMP). The CER argues that the ToR must be expanded to ensure broader government participation, mandatory attendance from industry and municipal leaders, and improved transparency and accessibility of air quality data and meeting documentation.
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Document type: Statement
APPEAL IN TERMS OF SECTION 62 OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT: MUNICIPAL SYSTEMS ACT, 2000 OF ESKOM’S LETHABO POWER STATION ATMOSPHERIC EMISSION LICENCE FDDM-MET-2011-08-P1 ISSUED ON 1 APRIL 2015
The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), representing groundWork, Earthlife Africa Johannesburg, and the Vaal Environmental Justice Alliance, filed an appeal on May 28, 2015, against the atmospheric emission licence (AEL) FDDM-MET-2011-08-P1 issued to Eskom's Lethabo Power Station. The appeal argues that the Fezile Dabi District Municipality failed to consider critical health impacts and ambient air quality standards when varying the AEL to incorporate the National Air Quality Officer's (NAQO) decisions to postpone compliance with Minimum Emission Standards (MES).
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Document type: Statement
COMMENTS ON THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENTAL AFFAIRS’ DRAFT AIR QUALITY OFFSET POLICY
The Centre for Environmental Rights (CER), acting for several environmental justice organisations, submitted comments on the Department of Environmental Affairs' (DEA) Draft Air Quality Offset Policy. The CER and its clients oppose the use of offsets in principle, arguing they serve as a "cheap option to avoid compliance" with emission standards and could undermine the constitutional right to a healthy environment. The submission highlights significant gaps in the draft policy, including a lack of clear criteria for determining offsets, poor institutional capacity for monitoring and enforcement, and failure to address equity and distributional effects.
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Document type: Statement
DECLARATION OF THE WATERBERG NATIONAL PRIORITY AREA
The document is a formal declaration by the Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs designating the Waterberg National Priority Area under the National Environmental Management: Air Quality Act, 2004, due to concerns over ambient air quality and trans-boundary pollution.
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Document type: Statement
Joint Civil Society Statement on IFC’s Draft Sustainability Framework
The document argues that the IFC's draft Sustainability Framework fails to adequately protect human rights, noting that references to human rights were removed from previous drafts. The signatories call for mandatory human rights due diligence for both the IFC and its clients, alignment with the UN 'Protect, Respect and Remedy' framework, and specific safeguards regarding water rights, gender impacts, forced evictions, and environmental damage.
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Document type: Statement
A Tale of Two Indabas
The text describes a divide between the official Mining Indaba in Cape Town and the concurrent Alternative Mining Indaba. While the main event focused on investment and corporate sustainability, the alternative event highlighted systemic issues including environmental pollution in Tanzania, lack of community consultation, and the marginalization of civil society through high registration fees and restrictive questioning formats during Corporate Social Responsibility sessions.
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Document type: Research paper
Reefs at Risk Revisited
The Reefs at Risk Revisited analysis finds that approximately 75 percent of global coral reefs are threatened by local and global pressures, with local threats affecting over 60 percent. Without intervention to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and local pressures, threatened reefs could increase to over 90 percent by 2030 and nearly all reefs by 2050. While over 25 percent of reefs are in marine protected areas, only 6 percent are effectively managed. The report identifies 27 nations as most vulnerable to reef degradation, including Haiti, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Environmental justice
The document defines environmental justice as the right to healthy living environments and a fair share of nature's benefits. It argues that the poorest populations are disproportionately affected by environmental damage and climate change, while the wealthiest are most responsible. Friends of the Earth advocates for 'climate justice,' where rich countries lead in carbon cuts and fund adaptation for poorer nations. The text highlights specific case studies of its work, including fighting oil pollution in Nigeria, uranium mining in Australia, and urban planning issues in the UK.
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Document type: Fact sheet
The Politics of Fossil-Fuel Subsidies
The document argues that fossil-fuel subsidies persist because they are reliable tools for governments to provide benefits to politically organized groups, despite negative impacts on budgets and pollution. It suggests that successful reform requires broader administrative improvements to compensate those negatively affected by the removal of subsidies.
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Document type: Research paper
Competing for Business
The report examines how Southeast Asian countries use investment incentives to attract FDI and the resulting impacts on sustainable development. While incentives have contributed to economic growth and job creation in some nations, the report finds significant evidence of redundancy, where investments would have occurred regardless of incentives. It highlights the importance of a supportive overall investment environment over isolated incentives and notes that environmental impacts remain under-researched. The document also discusses regional investment competition, the 'China effect', and the role of bilateral and regional treaties in shaping investment regimes.
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Document type: Report
Environmental Impacts of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement on the Greater Mekong Sub-Region
The report assesses the environmental consequences of the ASEAN-China Free Trade Agreement (ACFTA) on the Greater Mekong Sub-region (GMS). It finds that while trade has increased, a third of the trade volume involves highly polluting sectors, with much of this pollution originating in China. In Cambodia, imports of polluting goods from China have improved the local environment at the expense of China's, while the increase in natural resource-based exports threatens resource sustainability due to weak regulation. The author concludes that the ACFTA's lack of environmental cooperation provisions is a significant policy shortcoming.
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Document type: Report
Nature’s Gift, Man’s Curse: Oil, Violence and Prospects for Peace in the Niger Delta of Nigeria
The report examines the Niger Delta crisis, arguing that the transition from a regional to a federal control of oil revenue after 1956, combined with environmental degradation by oil multinationals and state failure in governance, led to systemic instability. It identifies a 30% loss in daily oil production due to militant attacks and recommends environmental assessments, community compensation, and inclusive dialogue to achieve peace.
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Document type: Report
International Transport of Lead and Cadmium via trade: an International concern?
The document argues that the global trade of lead and cadmium creates significant health and environmental risks that cannot be effectively managed by countries acting unilaterally, particularly in developing nations. It highlights the toxicity of these metals, the externalization of environmental costs to producing countries, and the failure of existing frameworks to cover the entire lifecycle of these substances.
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Document type: Briefing
Return of Organization Exempt From Income Tax Under section 501(c), 527, or 4947(a)(1} of the internal Revenue Code (except black lung benefit trust or private foundation)
The World Resources Institute (WRI) reported total revenue of $27,765,582 and total expenses of $28,102,119 for the 2008 tax year. The organization operates three primary program services: the Climate, Energy and Pollution Program, the Institutions and Governance Program, and the People and Ecosystems Program. WRI maintains a global presence with activities and grantmaking in regions including East Asia and the Pacific, Europe, North America, South America, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa. As of the end of the year, the organization held total assets of $53,223,660 and total liabilities of $3,795,121.
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Document type: Report
BAREKI & ANOTHER V GENCOR LTD & OTHERS 2006 (1) SA 432 (T)
The Bareki v Gencor case is a significant South African legal precedent regarding environmental liability. The court initially ruled that section 28 of the National Environmental Management Act (NEMA) did not apply retrospectively to pollution occurring before 1999, citing a common law presumption against retrospectivity and the 'strict' or 'absolute' nature of the liability. However, the document notes that Act 14 of 2009 subsequently amended NEMA to explicitly include retrospective application for significant pollution. The case also addressed the continuity of rehabilitation duties from repealed mining laws, with the court dismissing 'continuity by content' arguments but allowing some claims based on the Interpretation Act of 1957. The plaintiffs sought R64 million for asbestos pollution at the Bute mine caused by Gefco and Gencor between 1976 and 1981.
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Document type: Fact sheet
Link
This report by Friends of the Earth International asserts that environmental rights—including the right to a sustainable lifestyle, a healthy environment, water access, and food security—are integral to human rights. It details specific conflicts, such as the Ava Guarani's struggle for ancestral lands in Argentina, the impact of Shell's pollution in Curaçao, and the fight against GMO contamination in Mexico. The text criticizes neoliberal economic globalization for enabling multinational corporations to operate with impunity, often displacing indigenous populations and degrading ecosystems. It calls for a new ethics of environmental justice and the implementation of legally binding international conventions to protect marginalized communities from environmental aggression.
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Document type: Report
Reefs at Risk in the Caribbean Threat Assessment Workshop Summary
The Reefs at Risk Caribbean project workshop focused on improving a threat assessment model for coral reefs using proxy indicators. Key discussions centered on refining data for coastal development, watershed-based pollution, overfishing, and coral bleaching. Participants recommended incorporating higher-resolution data, adjusting population density metrics for fishing pressure, and treating coral bleaching and disease as separate analysis layers rather than integrated threat model components. The workshop also addressed the need for better mapping of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and the economic valuation of reefs.
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Document type: Report
CHLORINE AND THE PAPER INDUSTRY
The document describes a case study focused on the environmental challenges facing the pulp and paper industry during the 1990s, specifically the production of toxic dioxin during chlorine bleaching. It highlights the tension between environmental groups demanding the total elimination of chlorine and companies that viewed scientific evidence as inconclusive and were reluctant to invest billions in new equipment. The text introduces the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's 'cluster rule' as a regulatory attempt to base decisions on better science and proposes a stakeholder dialogue to find sustainable solutions for the industry.
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Document type: Case study
A TOXIC INTERNATIONAL PARTNERSHIP (TIP)
The document details a scenario where Treeton Chemical, a U.S. firm, acquires Tossico Chemical in Italy during a period of intense 'greening' of European politics and the push for a unified internal market. Following the acquisition, it is revealed via a whistleblower that Tossico had improperly dumped 650 tons of toxic waste in Koko, Nigeria, using unscrupulous waste brokers. This leads to a major international scandal, with the Italian Environment Minister seeking $75 million in compensation and environmental groups placing Treeton on a 'Corporate Toxic Enemies List'.
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Document type: Case study