Ecological justice

The concept refers to the social demands of the environmental movement and the environmentalist organizations to recognize the ecological crisis, for humans to assume their responsibility, and for decisions to be made urgently to address it. It proposes a change in the paradigm where human development respects the planet’s ecological demands and planetary boundaries.

Ecological justice is not as commonly used as climate justice, although it entails a more comprehensive understanding of ecological issues. It goes beyond climate change  and represents an approach to the concept of justice that is not as anthropocentric.

As Ibáñez (2010) suggests, ecological justice explores moral relations beyond humans to include nature. As a result, the word challenges the anthropocentric vision and proposes a model of ecocentric justice that is ‘based on nature’s intrinsic values and that identifies harm beyond humans or sentient beings. The model thus aims to ensure the persistence and survival of species and their ecosystems. Ecological justice expands the limits of justice beyond humanity’ (Montalván Zambrano, 2020:181).