Green Justice Approach to the Environmental Governance Dilemma: A Case Study of Jiufeng Environmental Energy Project in Yuhang District, Hangzhou

Abstract

This chapter reviews a public protest against the construction of a waste incineration power plant during April and May 2014 in Yuhang, Hangzhou. Based on the theory of green justice, the article analyses the core reasons of the protest and discusses the absence of justice between the residents and the local government from the perspectives of procedural justice and spatial justice with a special focus on the NIMBY (not-in-my-backyard) phenomenon. It suggests that the significant cause of such conflicts lies in the dominance of spatial justice of a private nature combined with the closed governmental decision-making process, which lacks procedural justice. To build a waste incineration power plant, it is argued, is not only a precise measure of environmental governance but also meant to protect the quality of civic lives. This is a dominant requirement of citizens during urbanization. Therefore, all the parties, i.e. the government, residents, and interest groups, should adhere to green justice as a holistic approach to deal with public bads like municipal waste, in this case based on common and long-term interests, and subsequently share the environmental public goods equally.