July 2015
abstract
Responsabilité & Environnement
L'environnement, avec ou contre les inégalités sociales ?
Issue editor:
Dominique DRON et André-Jean GUÉRIN
Issue 79
Editorial
By Dominique DRON and André-Jean GUÉRIN
(CGE)
1 – What are the associations and momentum between environmental and social inequality?
Social-environmental progress and the social-environmental state
By Éloi LAURENT
Économiste à l’OFCE, professeur à Sciences Po et Stanford University
Conceived in the United States in the context of the civil rights movement during the 1970s, the idea of environmental justice took several decades before becoming a topic discussed in the Old World, where the tradition of “social rights” is more ingrained - whence the question addressed herein: What concrete form would a welfare state take that seeks to promote not just social but also social-ecological progress? Given the very close, ever more intricate relations between social and environmental issues, the state may legitimately assume the duties of allocation, redistribution and stabilization for the purpose of providing coverage for social-environmental risks.
Chase nature away; it will always come running back!
By André-Jean GUÉRIN
Ingénieur général honoraire des Ponts, des Eaux et des Forêts
Environmental preoccupations have achieved a political and institutional form during the past few decades; but the history of industrial modernity offers glimpses of forgotten conflicts that broke out as the welfare state was emerging during the 20th century. In France and in Europe, environmental and social issues do not mix in the same way with the goal of economic growth. The very possibility of sustainable development is a standing question, whence a call for transforming our societies. Edgar Morin, a philosopher and sociologist, has advocated a metamorphosis.
The social inequality-environmental inequality nexus: An assessment and the prospects
By Virginie MARCHAL
Although unprecedented economic growth during the past few decades has raised the average standard of living, social inequality has never been as rife since the end of WW II. The devastation of the environment often affects vulnerable social groups disproportionately; they are usually the least prepared for coping and risk further impoverishment. Despite endless efforts over the past several decades for improving the quality and effectiveness of environmental management, natural resources are still being depleted in many areas around the globe. Some trends worldwide (such as better access to drinking water) provide promising signs of genuine improvement, but others (such as air pollution in urban areas, the lack of access to basic sanitation, the exposure to climate change and the degradation of ecosystems) seriously threaten human health. At risk are the most vulnerable social groups and populations in the poorest lands.
Examples of methods for assessing environmental inequality in matters of health: The methodology and preliminary findings of PLAINE, a French platform
By Julien CAUDEVILLE
INERIS
To explore the theme of environmental and social inequality in the field of health, international experiments with various methods of assessment are described, along with the context where this issue emerged and has been incorporated in national policy-making. The existing data on environmental inequality are discussed as well as the obstacles to using them, which are illustrated with examples from France.
2 - Environmental quality: For less or more inequality?
Environmental and social inequality: Identifying emergencies, creating momentum - The opinion of the Conseil Économique, Social et Environnemental (CESE)
By Pierrette CROSEMARIE
Conseillère au CESE, membre (représentant des salariés) du CESE au titre de la vie économique et du dialogue social p.crosemarie@cgt.fr
On 14 January 2015, the Conseil Économique, Social et Environnemental (CESE) in France adopted an official opinion, “Environmental and social inequality: Identifying emergencies, creating momentum”. Not all countries and populations are equal with regard to climate change, pollution, the devastation of ecosystems, or the access to energy and drinking water. Our activities and behaviors have deeply altered the environment over the past centuries. CESE’s recommendations focus on the national dimension. We should better take into account tensions over resources, the pollution stemming from our mode of production and our consumption patterns, the loss of biodiversity, and deepening social and economic inequality. The fight against social inequality entails a less destructive development of the environment and, consequently, a reduction in environmental inequality.
Are rational individuals desperately trapped in social dilemmas? The analysis of Elinor Ostrom
By Elinor OSTROM
Économiste et politologue américaine, Prix Nobel d’Économie en 2009
and Éloi LAURENT
(pour la traduction de l’article et la rédaction de l’introduction) (1) Économiste à l’OFCE, professeur à Sciences Po Paris et à Stanford University
Between purely private merchandise and public goods, between the market, which supposedly sees to an optimal distribution of private commodities, and the state, which creates and manages public goods, are there no other categories of property and players? The question seems settled once and for all since Garett Hardin’s The tragedy of the commons, a well-known article published in Science in 1968. Elinor Ostrom, an economist, political scientist and Nobel Prize winner in Economics (2009), has obstinately paid very close attention to the ways various communities provide for long-term operations and a forward-looking management of natural environments, which have been “artificialized” more effectively than either the market or government can do. With help from other researchers, she has revived work on the topic of “common goods” thanks to her study of the polycentric governance of natural resources.
The Somali pirates and us: History of a social adaptation to an imposed environmental inequality
By Jean-Michel VALANTIN
Docteur en études stratégiques, responsable de la rubrique Environment and Security du Think-tank The Red (Team) Analysis Society. https://www.redanalysis.org/
Somali piracy reveals how social inequality and environmental changes give rise to new social and political situations in which armed violence might correspond to an effective form of adaptation.
The environment: For better or worse?
By Dominique DRON
Ingénieure générale des Mines, CGE, ministère de l’Économie, de l’Industrie et du Numérique
Abundant natural resources, since society (whether aware of this or not) needs them, are, in principle, a blessing for human beings. Several civilizations have organized the access to wealth - water, the land, game, fish, etc. - or its distribution by using more or less egalitarian that evince more variety than the modern alternative between public and private property. Mineral and fossil-fuel deposits have often set off deadly conflicts stemming from a rationale of monopolization instead of sharing. Will this also happen in the case of “living processes”, as the ever scarcer supply, now evident, leads to new large-scale forms of social inequality instead of a fair local access?
a. En matière d’agriculture et d’alimentation
For productive forms of farming with high social and environmental value
By Henri ROUILLÉ d’ORFEUIL
Académie d’Agriculture de France, chargé de mission pour l’Année internationale de l’agriculture familiale (AAIF) de la FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization - Organisation des Nations unies pour l’alimentation et l’agriculture)
The FAO declared 2014 to be the Year of Family Farming, an occasion for giving thought to the capacity of family farms for assuming the daunting tasks awaiting agriculture: adequately feed humanity, sustainably manage the biggest share of natural resources and decently pay nearly 40% of the world’s labor force. Family farms are undoubtedly better placed to do this than the firms that have ventured into agriculture; but the intense poverty of farming families keeps this potential from being realized. This situation is a bane for natural resources and, in addition, the major cause of the unstanched flow of rural-dwellers into the labor market, which has proven incapable of decently integrating in the economy those who have already been excluded. The good news is that the “agro-ecological transition” creates the need for better qualified labor. Farmwork must be paid well enough for producers to want and be able to be the vectors of a dynamic agriculture.
Fifty years of farm policies and territorial planning on the island of Réunion
By Guillaume BENOIT
Conseil général de l’Alimentation, de l’Agriculture et des Espaces Ruraux (CGAAER)
Like many other islands, Réunion is a laboratory for projects on development (sustainable or not). A rare “collective intelligence” has enabled it to conduct a successful farm policy that has struck an urban/rural balance. It might serve as an example to areas where, given a lack of appropriate responses, the problems related to rural development and “littoralization” constitute threats for the local and global environment, the economy, social cohesion and stability. Despite this success, several trends are to be watched; but new forms of mobilization are taking shape to cope with them.
Rural solutions for the 21st century: Public policies in behalf of family farming in Brazil
By Bernard ROUX
Académie d'Agriculture
Agribusiness is increasing its hold over rural areas everywhere. Some countries, out of concern for the number of peasant farmers mistreated by market forces, have adopted various policies in favor of family farming: land grants, low-interest loans, programs for facilitating the marketing of produce or popularizing new techniques, etc. In Brazil, a major farming country, such policies were adopted in the mid-1990s under pressure from organizations representing landless peasants and with support from authorities during the terms served by President Lula. Besides the distribution of land (which it would be improper to call a farm reform), these policies contained measures for improving the peasantry’s social and economic integration. They have also tried to orient production systems toward sustainability.
Will natural and agricultural biodiversity guarantee a food supply for the population?
By Fayçal KEFI
Ingénieur diplômé en industries alimentaires de l’École Supérieure des Industries Alimentaires de Tunis (ESIAT), doctorant en économie agroalimentaire à l’Université de Catane en cotutelle avec Montpellier SupAgro sur le thème de la biodiversité
and Martine PADILLA
Professeure associée au Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM)
Fayçal KEFI , engineering degree from École Supérieure des Industries Alimentaires de Tunis (ESIAT) and Martine PADILLA , associate professor at the Centre International de Hautes Études Agronomiques Méditerranéennes (CIHEAM) Diversity is the key to a nutritious food supply, in particular to solving the problem of hidden hunger - the deficiency of micronutriments in a food supply that suffices in terms of quantity. Practices in farming and livestock and for selecting varieties are modifying the nutritional contents in our food. Large discrepancies in the amounts of nutriments in given types of food might explain the hunger hidden behind a regular consumption of nutritionally poor foodstuffs. The micronutriments in five products (fish, wheat, rice, milk and potatoes) were measured in comparison with recommendations. This study shows that, apart from wheat, there are significant differences between varieties of each of the others: the contribution to the Dietary Reference Intake (DRI) varies by 17% for vitamins and 7% for minerals. Since diversity in our plates is a necessary but not sufficient condition, the genetic diversity of varieties of plants and animals must also be brought under consideration. Consuming organic products has definite benefits in terms of vitamins, minerals, omega-3 and fiber.
b. En matière climatique
The socioeconomic impact of deregulation and climate policies
By Vincent VIGUIÉ
CIRED
Climate-related issues clearly illustrate the tension between the struggles against social inequality and against environmental inequality. When looking more closely however, the picture turns out to me much more complicated. It all depends on the time scale used. The effects to be avoided in the short term will not be any less of a source of inequality in the long run; and the absence of action is not, therefore, justifiable. Besides, several short-term mechanisms can be set up for providing compensation and making adjustments. In general, a gradual implementation provides the best lever for attenuating this conflict.
Environmental inequality and climate justice
By Catherine LARRÈRE
Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne
Climate change, a global phenomenon affecting every human being bestows a common fate on all of humanity. For this reason, nation-states are being asked to overcome their egoism and antagonisms. But how to achieve this given that climate change affects all human beings but very unequally, and that the countries concerned do not have the same financial means for meeting the resulting costs? How to achieve this when the situation’s complexity and duration - as well as the scope of the repercussions of greenhouse gas emissions on the territory and over time - make it very hard to identify responsibilities? Between the countries in the North who reject any responsibility for the past and those in the South who feel that demanding compensation is better justified than accepting limitations on their growth, it is hard to find an opening for justice. This is a question not merely of legitimacy but also of effectiveness: countries will not ratify un agreement they deem unfair. Various forms of inequality in relation to climate change are examined along with the problems of justice stemming from them and the possible solutions.
c. En milieux urbains
Contrasts in forms of socio-environmental inequality: Questions for regulatory policies in urban areas
By Guillaume FABUREL
Professeur, Université Lyon 2, UMR Triangle (CNRS, École Normale Supérieure, Université Lyon 2, Université de Saint-Étienne, IEP Lyon), LabEx Intelligences des Mondes Urbains
Guillaume FABUREL , professor at the University of Lyon 2, UMR Triangle (CNRS, École Normale Supérieure, Universiy of Lyon 2, University of Saint-Étienne, IEP Lyon), LabEx Intelligences des Mondes Urbains Environmental inequality and segregation seem to occur mainly in cities. An interpretation of the exposure to environmental risks only in terms of social disparities - now the major approach to the topic of environmental injustice - provides no information about the causes, nor about the trends that directly concern city-dwellers. To shed light on certain paradoxes, questions are asked about methods of observation and the issues detected. Our conceptions of the environment and justice, as they now figure in urban policies, need to be submitted to a thoroughgoing inquiry.
The development of coastal areas put to the test of environmental inequality
By Philippe DEBOUDT
Université de Lille Sciences et Technologies - Laboratoire Territoires, Villes, Environnement & Société (TVES) EA 4477 - UFR de Géographie et Aménagement
Research studies on environmental inequality address social and ecological preoccupations that usually have nothing to do with each other. For geographers, the goal is to inquire into the concept of a “milieu” (in the sense of inhabitable) or to mobilize a “mesological” approach. Attention is turned to how the relation between nature and population is constructed as a perpetual trajectory that is theoretical or both practical and ideological. This approach implies placing the environment in each local territory’s history. The main purpose is to grasp individuals’ relations with their environment through their experiences of it there where they are living. These relations are not restricted to geographical proximity. Other factors weigh on the individual’s experience of the environment: residential mobility, attachment to a place, integration in environmental networks, the local approach to environmental questions, etc.
The environment and social bonds
By Chantal DERKENNE
ADEME
and Nadia BOEGLIN
ADEME
For a decade now, public authorities have harped on environmentally positive practices for households, such as using bicycles as a means of transportation, loaning/borrowing tools or car-pooling. Some of these practices are correlated with the emergence or consolidation of social relationships, ranging from simple business transactions to tight community bonds. The conservation of the environment entails new social patterns that, by reviving a culture of living together (as advocated by certain parties), provide both an opportunity for creating new forms of solidarity and a challenge to public authorities, who vouchsafe social cohesion.