France Raised Pollution Tax on Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and Trucks

Essay Instructions:

Environmental Justice Progress: Case Study, Presentation, Discussion, and Reflection
Citizens and organizations have been advocating for environmental justice for decades now, and advocates have had some successes. In this individual assignment, you'll go in-depth into a case where progress has been made towards EJ goals.
This assignment has two parts:
1. Case study report (20 points) Due Dec. 10. 2-4 pages single-spaced.
The keys to writing an excellent case study will be (1) picking a good case to write about, and
(2) writing not just summary, but analysis.
a. Choosing a good case relies on selecting something that is not just an environmental victory, but makes progress in environmental justice. You can choose an environmental success story, but make sure to make explicit what the justice dimensions are. The success may be something like a court victory, legislative change, or policy change, but it doesn't have to be.
A lot of EJ successes include stopping some proposed or existing activity that was causing damage to environments and communities. While these are okay to write about, it will be more fruitful to write about protests or cases where damage was stopped if you can also write about long-lasting changes that came as a result of the protest. It would also be fruitful to write about proactive changes or solutions that aren't simply shutting down of something bad: for example, the passage of California Senate Bill 535 and how it was achieved.
b. The aim is not to simply summarize or tell the story, but to analyze the case. You'll have to give some context, but limit your background and narrating of the case to a page or a page-and-a-half. The main part of the paper will explore analytic questions, such as:
- Justice dimensions: Does the case pertain to distributive justice, procedural justice, or corrective justice? How did the actors involved frame or articulate the justice dimensions?
- Actors: What actors supported the change? What actors opposed it, or served as barriers?
- Strategy: How did the actors choose their suggested actions? Did they have to compromise?
- Knowledge, expertise, and power: How did these play roles in the outcome? Did certain groups have access to expertise and knowledge? Did it make a difference?
- History: What historical factors played a role in the process or outcomes? Are there successes that it builds on?
- Culture: What cultural factors played a role in the process or outcomes?
- Structural factors: What dimensions of structural racism, classism, colonialism, or gender-based oppression played a role? How were they changed or overcome?
- Geography: What spatial or ecological factors played a role?
- Wider context: What external - regional, national, or global factors or events played a role?
- Metrics: How can progress be measured? Think critically about the progress. Is the way the actors portray it accurate? Is the win local, or is it a win for EJ overall? What research could help understand the progress better?
- The future: What is the future of this topic? Can the success be replicated? If so, how?
Are there things that threaten to undo the progress?
You may choose to write about a combination of these things, or drill deep into one aspect.
A good paper will have an analytic lens, which is a theory that you look at the case study through. That is, you might choose to examine your case through the lens of procedural justice, or corrective justice. Or you might choose something like ecologically unequal exchange or environmentalism of the poor or simply culture or geography — it doesn’t have to be one of the EJ dimensions.
Grading rubric for case study paper:
6 points: Context
Gives enough background that the reader can understand the history, geography, and actors in the case - while still being concise; no more than 1.5 pages of summary or story-telling
2 points: Writing
Good grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, flow; clear introduction and conclusion
2 points: Sources
Refers correctly to at least 4 external sources, using any referencing format that’s coherent
10 points: Analysis
Thoughtful analysis that illuminates something original about the example and what it means for environmental justice struggles

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Case Study Report
Name
Institution
Due Date
Case Study Report
Countries all over the world continue to extract a heavy toll on the earth. Global CO2 emissions continue to break records with every passing year. While it may look like countries are doing their best to cut down on CO2 emissions, as it stands, the future does not look bright. In a 2019 UN meeting on climate change, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, asked that the world leaders act in earnest to help save the earth (UN, 2019). The speakers at the event claimed that there are only 11 years left for the world leaders to correct the seemingly irreparable damage to the earth. Guterres asked that countries exercise urgency in their quest to address global warming. CO2 emissions have been rising at a fast rate since the 18th century. By 2020, the annual CO2 emissions had reached more than 30 billion tons of CO2 emissions (Our World in Data, 2021). Such levels are quite high, considering that the issue of climate change has been in discussion for years. In France, protests have rocked the country as people try to push the government to act on climate change. However, like other countries, France has been slow to adopt policies that are likely to reduce the country’s contribution to the world’s CO2 emissions. Even though the country’s CO2 emissions have been falling, activists appear to not be moved by the country’s changes to curtail CO2 emissions. According to Statista Research Department (2021), France’s CO2 emissions have reduced to 250 million metric tons since reaching more than 500 million peaks. However, there have been reports that SUV sales in France are also rising, which means that the country’s efforts are counterproductive. A group by the name Les DÃ©gonflÃ©s started the fight against the increasing number of SUVs in the country. However, the group’s influence died, but their ideology had already caught on, and others joined in spreading the same message of reducing the SUV sales in the country. In 2019, France adopted a policy that would impose a $22,240 pollution tax on SUVs and trucks (Nussbaum, 2019). The move was seen as a response to the protests that have been going on against SUVs and their contribution to increased CO2 emissions in the country.
The policy by France is indeed a major statement to its developed counterparts who need to follow suit and adopt measures to lower their carbon footprint. With the UN’s warning that the world only has 11 years to salvage the situation, there is a need to act in haste and adopt measures that will see the world move towards a greener and cleaner state. This move by France does not excuse the country from its years of pollution, and considering that France still produces more than 200 metric tons of CO2 emissions, there is a need to keep finding ways to lower the world’s carbon footprint.
Recently, there have been reports of people finding their SUV tires deflated. In 2020, for example, York reported 220 SUVs being deflated in Bordeaux (2020). The anger and detest of SUVs has been growing in the country, and this was one out of the many protests and deflations that continue happening. In Britain and other developed ...

Updated on January 26, 2024

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France Raised Pollution Tax on Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs) and Trucks

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