Press Release

Environmental defenders from Cancer Alley call for climate reparations at the United Nations

Facing a deadly combination of climate-intensified hurricanes and toxic emissions,
community leaders from RISE St. James Louisiana, accompanied by the Georgetown Environmental Law & Justice Clinic, advocate for reparatory justice for climate and environmental harms linked to slavery and systemic racism.

December 2, 2024

Environmental justice leaders from RISE St. James Louisiana traveled to the United Nations in New York to shine a light on the climate and environmental harms linked to the legacies of slavery and systemic racism that affect their communities in southern Louisiana. In doing so, they join an emerging chorus of voices calling for climate reparations in the United States.

RISE St. James is advocating for reparations for intersecting climate and environmental harms during a session of the United Nations Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent at the U.N. Headquarters in New York from December 2-6, 2024. RISE St. James is accompanied at the U.N. by students and staff from the Georgetown Environmental Law & Justice Clinic. The Clinic teaches students key lawyering and advocacy skills through conducting legal work on behalf of underserved clients and communities in environmental injustice, pollution control, climate, and natural resources matters. This semester, a team of Clinic students supported RISE St. James in preparing a written submission to the U.N. Working Group about the need for reparatory justice to address climate and environmental harms in Louisiana.

The representatives of RISE St. James hail from an area of Louisiana known as “Cancer Alley” due to the disproportionate cancer rates that residents face. Hundreds of fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities operate in Cancer Alley, and they are disproportionately located near Black communities. Many of these facilities are located on the same land where plantations previously exploited the labor of enslaved people.

While Black communities and advocates have long called for reparations for slavery, structural discrimination, and race-based violence—leading to notable recent successes, such as in the cities of Evanston and Palm Springs and the state of California—RISE St. James is among the first grassroots groups to demand reparations for climate injustices linked to legacies of slavery and systemic racism in the United States.

The fossil fuel and petrochemical facilities in Cancer Alley contribute significantly to climate disruption, which exacerbates storms, flooding, and heat-related harms in one of the areas that is hardest hit by the climate crisis in the United States. At the same time, these facilities produce toxic emissions associated with increased rates of cancer, respiratory diseases, and reproductive harms, as well as other health, social, and cultural harms to local residents.

Leading the call for reparatory justice is Sharon Lavigne, Founder and Executive Director of RISE St. James Louisiana and 2021 Goldman Prize winner, who is addressing the U.N. Working Group today.

Lavigne said: “We are fighting for our lives and for the lives of future generations. Our community members deserve justice and reparations for the devastation the industrial buildout has caused in our community.”

Harms associated with petrochemical facilities in Cancer Alley are not limited to toxic emissions and climate-related impacts, as Shamyra Lavigne-Davey, who is the Executive Assistant of RISE St. James Louisiana, points out.

Lavigne-Davey said: “Formosa Plastics seeks to construct a new petrochemical complex at a site where the graves of enslaved people are located, despite fierce opposition from our communities. This serves as an example of how our communities are prevented from participating in environmental decision-making in this area.”

Ahead of this U.N. session in New York, Georgetown Law students worked nearly full time in the Clinic on this matter, while gaining legal skills transferable to their future work as attorneys.

Alyssa-Dean Huie, a student attorney in the Georgetown Clinic, said: “RISE St. James continues to fight tirelessly for environmental justice for communities in Cancer Alley. It is such a privilege to work with them to highlight the importance of considering these complex and interconnected climate and environmental harms as part of reparatory justice at this U.N. session.”

The U.N. Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent is mandated by the U.N. Human Rights Council to study the problems of racial discrimination against people of African descent and make proposals for the elimination of such discrimination. At its session this week, the U.N. Working Group will focus on reparatory justice for people of African descent, in light of the “enslavement, trafficking, colonization, torture, and segregation of Africans and people of African descent for the last four centuries.”

Sarah Dorman, Supervising Attorney & Teaching Fellow with the Georgetown Clinic, said: “Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to human rights today, and the impacts of climate disruption and toxic pollution fall most heavily on communities—like those in Cancer Alley—that have historically been subjected to discrimination and marginalization. For these reasons, the U.N. Working Group should center climate and environmental justice in its recommendations for reparatory justice for people of African descent.”

This engagement with the U.N. builds on legal research and analysis on climate reparations that the Clinic undertook in service of RISE St. James, with the institutional support of Earth Island Institute, beginning in the fall of 2024.

Professor Sara Colangelo, Director of the Georgetown Clinic, said: “It is an honor for the Clinic to support RISE St. James members as they fight for environmental justice, and fight for the health and dignity of their families and of the generations that came before and will follow them.”

Scott Hochberg, General Counsel at Earth Island Institute, said: “We hope that the U.N. Working Group heeds the urgent calls for comprehensive climate reparations, both for residents in St. James and all communities affected by toxic linkage of slavery and environmental damage.”

RISE St. James Louisiana previously testified before the U.N. Working Group during its 2021 session focused on environmental justice. RISE St. James Louisiana is a project of Earth Island Institute, an international environmental organization and fiscal sponsor to more than 75 projects that are creating solutions to the interconnected challenges and threats facing our planet.

For more information, please contact:

RISE St. James Louisiana
Gary Watson
Communications Director for RISE St. James
Gary@garywatsonllc.com

Georgetown Environmental Law & Justice Clinic
Sarah Dorman
Supervising Attorney & Teaching Fellow
sarah.dorman@georgetown.edu

Sara Colangelo
Associate Professor of Law & Director, Environmental Law & Justice Clinic
sara.colangelo@law.georgetown.edu

Earth Island Institute
Raquel Trinidad
Communications Director
communications@earthisland.org