Exploring EI in Belgium: a New Theoretical and Empirical Way to Deal with Environmental Conflicts in Urban Areas?

Environmental Inequalities (EI) –the unequal distribution of environmental goods and ‘bads’ among space and population– are a field of research at the crossroads of political science, socio-legal studies, and urban research. Unlike US Environmental Justice movement, environmental inequalities are not seen by actors, or studied, as a specific frame for action and collective mobilisation in Belgium in environmental matters.
Environmental conflicts are however numerous in urban areas in Belgium where industrial activities and housing cohabit. In this paper, I introduce the topic of environmental inequalities in Belgium and analyse the unequal consequences of urban policy in Belgium in terms of environmental quality and access to amenities, more precisely, of uneven access to ‘quality of life’ in a context of ‘anti-urban policy’.
Environmental inequalities invite us to think about democracy in the cities (citizen participation, equal access to environmental quality of life) and about litigation and legal opportunities for individuals and groups in environmental conflicts. This paper questions the possibility of alternative modes of public regulation in a ‘social and environmental justice in the city’ perspective that could better integrate social and environmental issues.
This paper explores (1) how environmental NGOs and individuals can mobilise the law to denounce environmental conflicts and inequalities providing insights into an environmental inequalities perspective on access to justice in environmental lawsuits. It then studies (2) how current urban policy in Belgium can contribute to explaining these inequalities.
Empirical evidence relies, on the one hand, on legal texts, public policy analysis and litigation cases and, on the other hand, on exploratory interviews with stakeholders in Belgium –main political parties, environmental non-profit organizations, legal practitioners, trade unions and scientific institutions.