The EJA Youth Research & Action Network
EJA Chapter Network

Investigate Environmental Injustice. Develop Solutions That Address Its Causes.

Environmental challenges are not experienced equally. Pollution, climate risks, resource insecurity, and ecological degradation intersect with inequality, public institutions, legal protections, and everyday human experience.

EJA chapters investigate these connections within their local communities. By integrating environmental evidence, law and policy analysis, psychology, lived experience, and community perspectives, chapters work to identify the causes of environmental injustice and develop informed recommendations for change.

Propose an EJA ChapterExplore the EJA Approach

EJA chapters do more than raise awareness. They investigate environmental justice questions, evaluate existing responses, and develop evidence-informed recommendations suited to their local contexts.

The scale and complexity of a chapter’s outputs should match its capacity, available time, and evidence.

The EJA approach

One Environmental Issue. Multiple Dimensions of Justice.

Chapters approach an environmental challenge through interconnected perspectives, rather than treating science, law, policy, and human experience as separate subjects.

Dimension A

Environmental Evidence and Scientific Understanding

Investigate what is happening, where it is happening, and what evidence supports the claims being made.

Methods may include: Reviewing environmental data, analysing credible reports, examining maps, comparing published research, conducting appropriate observations, and identifying uncertainty or evidence gaps.

Questions to consider
  • What environmental harm or risk has been documented?
  • Where is it concentrated, and how does exposure vary?
  • What are the likely causes and consequences?
  • What evidence is missing or contested?
Dimension B

Environmental Justice and Inequality

Examine how environmental risks, resources, protections, and decision-making power are distributed across communities.

Questions to consider
  • Which communities experience disproportionate environmental burdens?
  • What social, economic, geographic, or institutional factors contribute to their vulnerability?
  • Who benefits from the activities associated with the harm?
  • Whose concerns are recognised, and whose are overlooked?
  • Are affected people meaningfully included in decisions?
Analytical lenses
Distributive justice:
Who bears the burdens and who receives the benefits.
Procedural justice:
Who participates in decisions, and whether those processes are fair.
Recognitional justice:
Whether different communities, identities, experiences, and needs are acknowledged and respected.
Dimension C

Law, Policy, and Institutional Accountability

Investigate how legal rules, regulatory frameworks, public policies, enforcement, and institutional responsibilities shape environmental outcomes.

Questions to consider
  • Which authorities or institutions have relevant responsibilities?
  • What laws, regulations, policies, or standards apply?
  • Are the rules implemented and enforced effectively?
  • Are affected communities able to access information, participate in decisions, seek remedies, or challenge harmful practices?
  • What regulatory, institutional, or policy gaps may exist?
  • What feasible changes could improve prevention, protection, enforcement, participation, or accountability?
  • Distinguish between existing law, proposed reform, and your own recommendations.
  • Cite credible sources for legal claims and acknowledge jurisdictional differences.
  • General educational research is not professional legal advice.
Dimension D

Psychology, Human Behaviour, and Lived Experience

Investigate the human factors that influence environmental harm, public responses, and the effectiveness of proposed solutions.

Questions to consider
  • How do people perceive environmental risks, and what shapes their understanding?
  • How do trust in institutions, access to information, social norms, and economic constraints affect behaviour?
  • Why might people struggle to adopt an environmentally beneficial practice even when they understand its benefits?
  • How do environmental conditions affect wellbeing, sense of security, agency, and relationship with the community?
  • How do fear, uncertainty, stigma, cultural context, and previous experiences influence public participation?
  • Are proposed interventions realistic for the people expected to implement or live with them?
  • Use psychology to explain mechanisms and constraints, not to blame affected communities for structural problems.
  • Analyse behaviour alongside material conditions, institutional incentives, resource access, and power relationships.
  • Lived experience can identify questions, contextualise evidence, and test whether responses reflect community priorities — handled respectfully, with informed consent and appropriate protection of identities.
Dimension E

Policy Recommendations and Practical Pathways to Change

Translate the preceding analysis into proportionate, evidence-informed recommendations.

Possible focus
  • Legal or regulatory reform
  • Better implementation or enforcement of existing rules
  • Improved public participation and access to environmental information
  • Changes to institutional procedures or accountability mechanisms
  • Targeted public investment or service provision
  • Behavioural interventions that address genuine psychological or practical barriers
  • Community-led initiatives and educational programmes
  • Improved monitoring, data collection, and evaluation
Each recommendation should explain
  1. 1.The specific problem it addresses
  2. 2.The evidence or analysis supporting it
  3. 3.The responsible actor or institution, where identifiable
  4. 4.The proposed mechanism through which it could help
  5. 5.Potential costs, barriers, trade-offs, or unintended consequences
  6. 6.How success could be evaluated

Environmental protection asks how environmental harm can be prevented or reduced. Environmental justice also asks how the burdens and benefits of environmental decisions are distributed, whose voices influence decisions, whether protections are accessible and enforced, and what accountability or remedy is available when harm occurs.

Chapter work

Environmental Justice Investigation and Action

Chapter activity centres on investigating a question and developing a response, rather than on carrying out environmental activities alone.

Environmental justice case studies

Investigate a local environmental conflict, exposure disparity, resource-access problem, or environmental health concern.

Law and policy analysis

Examine relevant legal frameworks, institutional responsibilities, enforcement gaps, and possible reforms.

Human impact and behavioural analysis

Investigate how environmental conditions affect communities and how social, psychological, and material factors influence outcomes.

Community-informed research and storytelling

Document local experiences ethically and connect them with reliable evidence and structural analysis.

Policy briefs and recommendations

Communicate findings and propose feasible responses for relevant decision-makers or stakeholders.

Comparative international analysis

Compare how different jurisdictions address similar environmental justice challenges and identify lessons that can be transferred cautiously.

Community engagement and education

Organise discussions or workshops that communicate findings and create opportunities for informed participation.

Evaluation and follow-up

Where feasible, assess whether a proposed intervention addresses the identified problem and what additional evidence is needed.

General clean-ups, tree planting, recycling drives, and awareness campaigns may be included where they are relevant, but on their own they are not sufficient evidence of environmental justice work.

Illustrative example

Urban Waste and Environmental Justice

A chapter investigates waste management in a densely populated city.

  1. 01

    Environmental evidence

    Map publicly documented waste collection gaps, landfill pressures, or pollution concerns.

  2. 02

    Justice analysis

    Investigate which neighbourhoods experience the greatest burdens and how infrastructure, resources, or decision-making affect those patterns.

  3. 03

    Law and policy

    Review relevant waste regulations, municipal responsibilities, implementation arrangements, and enforcement.

  4. 04

    Psychology and human factors

    Explore how collection access, convenience, trust, incentives, public information, and household constraints influence waste practices.

  5. 05

    Community perspectives

    Consult relevant stakeholders ethically, and avoid assuming that residents' behaviour alone explains systemic problems.

  6. 06

    Recommendations

    Propose evidence-informed options, such as improved service provision, clearer accountability, targeted infrastructure, accessible public information, or appropriately designed incentives.

  7. 07

    Evaluation

    Identify indicators that could help assess whether the recommendations improve environmental conditions or reduce unequal burdens.

This is an illustrative example, not a claim about a specific real community. Any real-world project must independently establish its facts and sources.

The network

Where chapters investigate

Each chapter works on the environmental justice questions that matter where it is based.

Select a marker to highlight its chapter.

FijiTanzaniaW. SaharaCanadaUnited States of AmericaKazakhstanUzbekistanPapua New GuineaIndonesiaArgentinaChileDem. Rep. CongoSomaliaKenyaSudanChadHaitiDominican Rep.RussiaBahamasFalkland Is.NorwayGreenlandFr. S. Antarctic LandsTimor-LesteSouth AfricaLesothoMexicoUruguayBrazilBoliviaPeruColombiaPanamaCosta RicaNicaraguaHondurasEl SalvadorGuatemalaBelizeVenezuelaGuyanaSurinameFranceEcuadorPuerto RicoJamaicaCubaZimbabweBotswanaNamibiaSenegalMaliMauritaniaBeninNigerNigeriaCameroonTogoGhanaCôte d'IvoireGuineaGuinea-BissauLiberiaSierra LeoneBurkina FasoCentral African Rep.CongoGabonEq. GuineaZambiaMalawiMozambiqueeSwatiniAngolaBurundiIsraelLebanonMadagascarPalestineGambiaTunisiaAlgeriaJordanUnited Arab EmiratesQatarKuwaitIraqOmanVanuatuCambodiaThailandLaosMyanmarVietnamNorth KoreaSouth KoreaMongoliaIndiaBangladeshBhutanNepalPakistanAfghanistanTajikistanKyrgyzstanTurkmenistanIranSyriaArmeniaSwedenBelarusUkrainePolandAustriaHungaryMoldovaRomaniaLithuaniaLatviaEstoniaGermanyBulgariaGreeceTurkeyAlbaniaCroatiaSwitzerlandLuxembourgBelgiumNetherlandsPortugalSpainIrelandNew CaledoniaSolomon Is.New ZealandAustraliaSri LankaChinaTaiwanItalyDenmarkUnited KingdomIcelandAzerbaijanGeorgiaPhilippinesMalaysiaBruneiSloveniaFinlandSlovakiaCzechiaEritreaJapanParaguayYemenSaudi ArabiaAntarcticaN. CyprusCyprusMoroccoEgyptLibyaEthiopiaDjiboutiSomalilandUgandaRwandaBosnia and Herz.North MacedoniaSerbiaMontenegroKosovoTrinidad and TobagoS. SudanEJA Kashmir — Kashmir, IndiaEJA Nanjing — Nanjing, Jiangsu, ChinaEJA Lahore — Lahore, Punjab, PakistanEJA BNU Experimental High — Beijing, China
Chapter country

Chapter spotlights

EJA Kashmir

Kashmir, India

EJA Kashmir investigates access to clean water, biodiversity loss, and ecological restoration in the region, alongside native reforestation and wildlife corridor work.

  • Native reforestation
  • Wildlife corridors
  • Biodiversity conservation
  • Access to clean water
  • Ecological restoration

Chapter leader

Yuvraj Goel

EJA Nanjing

Nanjing, Jiangsu, China

EJA Nanjing investigates heat and health — who is most exposed, how institutions respond, and what would make the city more resilient — through environmental education and community action.

  • Heat and health
  • Environmental education
  • Community action
  • Environmental resilience

Chapter leader

Danielle Pan

EJA Lahore

Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan

EJA Lahore examines heat and health through environmental storytelling, photography, and visual documentation, connecting lived experience with evidence and the policy questions it raises.

  • Environmental storytelling
  • Photography and visual documentation
  • Heat and health
  • Environmental education
  • Community action

Chapter leader

Rumaisa Ishaq

EJA BNU Experimental High

Beijing, China

EJA BNU Experimental High investigates respiratory health and industrial pollution through oral history, field-based research, digital mapping, and environmental art, asking who carries the greatest burden.

  • Respiratory health
  • Industrial pollution
  • Oral history and storytelling
  • Field-based research
  • Digital mapping
  • Environmental art
  • Environmental justice

Chapter leader

Selina Ge

Chapter leaders

Each chapter is led by a student or young person who shapes its questions and coordinates its work.

All chapter leaders
Questions

Frequently asked questions

What makes an EJA chapter different from an ordinary environmental club?

EJA chapters focus on understanding the causes and distribution of environmental harm, examining how institutions and legal frameworks respond, considering the experiences of affected communities, and developing evidence-informed recommendations. Chapters may organise environmental activities, but their distinctive contribution is an environmental justice perspective that connects evidence, power, accountability, and human experience.

Do I need to know environmental law or psychology already?

No. Applicants do not need prior expertise. The chapter model encourages interdisciplinary learning and helps participants develop questions across environmental science, justice, law and policy, psychology, and community experience.

Does every project need a policy brief?

No. The appropriate output depends on the issue, evidence, capacity, and purpose of the project. Some projects may produce case studies, educational resources, community-informed research, or practical interventions. Where appropriate, findings can support policy recommendations.

Does EJA assume every environmental problem is caused by inequality?

No. Chapters should investigate the evidence and context rather than assume a conclusion. Environmental justice analysis asks whether environmental burdens, benefits, protections, and decision-making processes are distributed fairly, and whether relevant inequalities or accountability gaps can be demonstrated.

Start a chapter

Better questions come first.

Environmental justice begins with asking better questions: what is happening, who is affected, why the burden falls where it does, how institutions respond, and what could be changed.

EJA chapters bring these questions into local communities and connect them with a wider international conversation. By integrating environmental evidence, law and policy, psychology, lived experience, and community perspectives, chapters work towards responses that address not only environmental harm, but also the conditions that allow injustice to persist.

Propose an EJA ChapterMeet the chapter leaders