ABSTRACT The purpose of this work was to analyse water access based not only on the indicators proposed by the Joint Monitoring Program (JMP) and the expenditures incurred by households in Mexico, but also by performing an analysis by groups at all income deciles nationally as well as in urban and rural areas. Inequalities in access and the cost of access to this resource between rural and urban households, as well as between low – and high-income households, becomes evident when estimating the indicators proposed by the JMP for WASH of the WHO and UNICEF. These indicators were estimated at the national, urban, and rural levels. Lastly, a test of means (ANOVA) was performed to determine whether there was a statistical difference among household deciles, considering WASH levels and whether they were urban or rural households. The JMP indicators to measure household access to water show a statistically significant difference between urban and rural households, among income decile levels, and among the different years analysed. Thus, there is a need to generate new water policies and/or projects that seek to reduce or eliminate this inequality for the benefit of society as a whole, and especially for the most vulnerable households.

ABSTRACT Transformative action is required to respond to the polycrisis of our age, across climate/ecological breakdown and mounting social inequalities. Doughnut economics and its “Portrait of Place” method have established themselves as tools for exploring local change through new possibilities that can help in this response. This position paper, based on a selective review of existing doughnut place portraits, examines how degrowth and decolonial approaches are intuitively part of the Doughnut model, conceptually and practically, and how they open up further opportunities to highlight what transformation looks like in the face of the global polycrisis. Exploring each of the four lenses of the Doughnut portrait method in turn (global-ecological, local-ecological, global-social, local-social), we critically explore and detail what these opportunities might be. While we found limited actual application of these ideas within existing Doughnut portraits, we recommend areas for further inquiry to enhance Doughnut portraits through degrowth and decolonial approaches. Specifically, these include paying more attention to assessing a wellbeing economy and provisioning systems, multi-species relations and the democratic rights and legal personhood of nature, the global impacts of supply chain activity from local consumption, and excess and uneven consumption and resource use and their impacts on critical planetary boundaries. We conclude by highlighting what could be the most lasting contribution of degrowth and decolonial approaches for the Doughnut model – to clarify, extend and embed debates and action in terms of what the economy could be beyond the dominant growth and colonial mindset.

ABSTRACT In recent years, climate governance has become more conflictual, and there has been a growth in both pro-climate activism and climate-sceptic discontent, in Europe as well as in Scandinavia. This increasing politicisation of climate policy plays out at various levels and platforms. In this article, we question to what extent cities have the institutional capacity to handle climate protests and channel them into decision-making. The article is based on extensive fieldwork in four Scandinavian cities (Oslo, Bergen, Stockholm and Gothenburg) studying civil society protests and cities’ responsiveness in two main areas of climate policy: densification and mobility. Using an institutional governance perspective, we map formal channels for citizen activism and analyse how these institutional structures influence the ability of urban leadership to respond. Overall, we find a gap between the ambitions of cities for citizen participation on the one hand and local governments’ institutional capacity to manage input on the other. There are significant differences in “institutional logics” between the two main policy areas. In densification and land-use planning, there are legal, institutional channels for citizen engagement, while there are no established channels within mobility. This has had clear implications for political processes in the cities – materialising in mobility controversies, sparking the establishment of new political protest parties. Our findings underline the importance of political responsiveness to citizens protests, in order to avoid populist backlash and delay in climate transformations.

ABSTRACT In the Global South, discarding practices are shaped not only by contemporary debates on circular economies and environmental justice, but also by enduring colonial legacies and cultural influences that continue to structure material flows and social responsibilities. We thematically synthesised 48-peer-reviewed articles on how household-level discard practices are informed by cultural meanings and colonial influences, offering a comprehensive account that bridges fragmented studies into a coherent decolonial perspective. Using the PRISMA methodology and Population, Experience, and Outcome framing, we identified five key themes: the legacies of imposed systems; the gradual erosion of traditional discard practices; religious paradigms of waste; women's invisible labour and stigmatisation; and the rise of informal waste economies in response to municipal voids. After drawing the distinction between waste colonialism and colonial influence on waste in the introductory section, our findings demonstrate how the latter have continued to shape contemporary waste infrastructure and behaviours, often conflicting with local cultural norms and practices. We propose hybrid waste governance models that integrate formal systems with community-based approaches, traditional practices, and informal economies. The review highlights the need to reframe waste management not just as a technical issue but also as a culturally mediated and historically situated practice. This review provides insights into the development of more equitable, effective, and culturally sensitive waste policies in the context of the Global South.

ABSTRACT Zhangpu paper-cutters have historically relied on imported rice paper, leaving the craft vulnerable to global fuel price increases and rising transport costs. This study investigates whether locally-available natural materials can provide a sustainable and just alternative for the community. Using a mixed-methods approach, we surveyed 100 randomly sampled residents to examine perceptions of local resources and the role of community capital in supporting cultural continuity. We then produced experimental papers from kelp, laver and bamboo – materials abundant in Zhangpu – and evaluated their physical properties and artistic suitability through structured tests and user trials with expert artisans. The results show that locally sourced fibres, particularly laver – bamboo blends, can produce paper with favourable aesthetic, textural and functional qualities comparable to traditional rice paper while reducing dependence on external supply chains. Incorporating these materials has the potential to enhance community capital by strengthening local resource use, supporting artisan livelihoods and reducing socio-ecological vulnerability. This study demonstrates how local environmental resources can support more equitable and resilient forms of intangible cultural heritage practice.

ABSTRACT In the process of promoting the construction of livable cities, visual landscape quality (LVQ) has gradually become an important indicator of urban livability. However, there are significant imbalances in visual landscape quality among different communities due to differences in economic, policy and other factors, and this variability has triggered public concern about its fairness. An in-depth assessment of the equity of visual landscape quality can help provide strong theoretical support and practical guidance for the scientific allocation of landscape resources. This study aims to assess the fairness of the visual landscape quality of the community living circle, for which a fairness assessment framework is constructed, which integrates the visual landscape quality, deep learning and image recognition, spatial statistical analysis, and community house price big data, to conduct a community-level visual landscape for the “15-minute living circle” in the Binjiang District of Hangzhou as an example of the quality fairness assessment. The results show that there is a obvious inequity in visual landscape quality between residential neighbourhoods, with the Riverside South Strategic and Central Enhancement Districts having higher visual landscape quality than the Riverside Quality District, and that there is a spatially negative correlation between community housing prices and visual landscape quality in this study area. The findings provide relevant insights for the scientific allocation of landscape resources and the elimination of inequity in visual landscape quality in urban areas.

ABSTRACT Protected and conserved areas (PCAs) play a pivotal role in biodiversity conservation and are anticipated to contribute to human well-being by addressing poverty and adhering to principles of environmental equity. Despite these aspirations, achieving and measuring equity on the ground have proven challenging. The scientific literature offers various conceptualizations of equity, thereby obstructing the derivation of clear guidelines and synthesis for practical applications. To address this difference in conceptualizations, we mapped contemporary academic literature to interrogate the conceptualization of equity within protected area governance. Our focus encompassed dimensions of environmental equity, including recognition, procedural, distributive equity. The mapping revealed distributional equity and rights-based claims have remained the most prominent concerns throughout the 2002–2023 period, while attention to procedural and especially recognitional equity has markedly increased since 2017, with many recent studies integrating all three dimensions. Most reviewed articles considered equity for Indigenous and Local Communities in relation to PCA governance. Our literature map highlights the promotion of community involvement as a solution to align equity and ecological outcomes in PCA management, as well as a mechanism for recognizing the rights of Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities. However, recommendations for practice are often ambiguous and present challenges for practical application. Addressing the intersectional nature of equity by disaggregating stakeholder metrics and centering Indigenous ways of knowing and governance systems is essential to unveil connections between people and nature and to improve equity in practice.

ABSTRACT Wind energy is one of the European Union’s key assets for addressing the climate crisis. However, insufficient attention has been paid to the consequences of the End-Of-Life (EOL) of wind turbines. While various options exist for managing waste, none effectively address the non-recyclability of wind blades. Although the literature has explored this problem from different angles, it has not yet been analysed through an environmental justice lens. This paper identifies the potential environmental justice implications of wind waste management in EU member states. Through a systematic literature review and qualitative analysis of 47 cases, we examine the issue from distributive, recognitional, procedural, and legislative perspectives. Our findings indicate that the industry frequently refers to technical challenges as a pretext to delay effective waste management. Local voices and knowledge are frequently disregarded, raising concerns about recognition and participation. Finally, the lack of specific and harmonised legislation on EOL may contribute to an unequal distribution of burdens. These dynamics exemplify forms of environmental injustice and reinforce existing power imbalances. The insights offered in this paper aim to support a more just energy transition in Europe. Key policy highlights Blade waste from EOL processes is expected to increase substantially with wind energy expansion. The lack of recyclability of the blade materials creates important waste management issues for the wind industry. Poor waste management can be a catalyst for environmental justice concerns. There is a lack of specific and harmonised legislation on EOL processes in the European Union. A socially just energy transition in Europe must address the growing concern of wind blade waste.

ABSTRACT The social justice dimension of agroecological transitions is often overlooked, with related initiatives criticised for excluding socially marginalised groups. Agroecology-oriented Food Redistribution Initiatives (AFRIs) emerged during COVID-19 to address the heightened food insecurity levels, linking agroecology with food justice struggles. Drawing on interviews and fieldwork conducted in two AFRIs and several Conventional Food Security Organisations (CFSOs) of Barcelona and Sevilla, Spain, this research highlights their different implications and performances for distributive and procedural justice as well as environmental sustainability. The study shows that CFSOs blend traditional and innovative food redistribution practices, increasingly recognising both the right to food and the structural causes of food insecurity. AFRIs adopt more critical discourses and practices, challenging inequities in access to healthy food and advocating for structural transformations across all levels of the food system. Furthermore, AFRIs prioritise agroecology and local economies over just reducing food waste, as CFSOs commonly do, and they involve marginalised individuals in decisions and activities to promote community empowerment and procedural justice. Although AFRIs may be temporary and reach fewer people than CFSOs, their prefigurative practices can inspire a transition towards more sustainable and just food aid, while also advancing social justice goals within agroecology.

ABSTRACT The integrated development and equitable distribution of urban green–blue spaces (UGBS) are important for sustainable and socially inclusive cities. Despite extensive research on equity in green spaces, comprehensive assessments of equity in UGBS and the coordination relationship between blue and green spaces remain scarce. Based on coupling theory, a multi-level UGBS equity evaluation framework of “spatial equity-social equity” was established. The supply-demand matching, green–blue coordination, and social equity of UGBS distribution in Hangzhou were assessed by coupling coordination model, Gini coefficient, and spatial autocorrelation. Results show: (1) UGBS distribution in Hangzhou exhibits a significant supply-demand mismatch and blue–green incoordination, with both metrics being higher in the urban core than in suburban areas; (2) Disparities and inequalities in UGBS resource among different socio-economic groups are observed, with low-income populations face greater inequality than middle- and high-income populations. (3) Affluent groups are spatially concentrated in urban core areas with high UGBS supply and coordination levels, while low-income and certain middle-income groups are disadvantaged in accessing UGBS. (4) The inequality in green–blue coordination is more severe than that in supply level. Finally, three spatial patterns of UGBS among vulnerable groups were identified, and specific planning measures were proposed. This study constructed an equity evaluation framework for integrated UGBS, providing recommendations for planning policies guided by equity.