Environmental justice — the principle that environmental benefits and burdens should be fairly distributed across communities — is an emerging but underfunded field in Australia. Lower-income communities, rural areas, and particularly Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities often bear disproportionate environmental burdens: living near industrial pollution, lacking access to clean water, experiencing climate change impacts first and worst. Grant funding supports advocacy, legal action, health research, and community organising that addresses these inequities.
What is environmental justice?
Environmental justice encompasses:
- Distributive justice: fair distribution of environmental benefits and burdens
- Procedural justice: meaningful community participation in environmental decisions
- Corrective justice: accountability for environmental harm and remediation
- Recognition justice: recognising the rights and cultural relationships of affected communities (particularly Indigenous peoples)
Key environmental justice issues in Australia
Environmental Defenders Offices (EDOs)
EDOs provide free legal advice and advocacy for communities facing environmental harm:
- EDO Victoria
- EDO NSW
- EDO Queensland
- EDO WA, NT, SA, TAS
EDOs are primarily philanthropically funded — environmental law philanthropy is a growing sector.
Australian Conservation Foundation (ACF)
ACF funds some environmental justice advocacy and campaigns.
Earthjustice and international environmental justice funders
Some international funders support Australian environmental justice.
The Sunrise Project
Climate justice and transition — some environmental justice components.
Lock the Gate Alliance
Coal seam gas and mining opposition — supported by some environmental justice philanthropy.
First Nations-led environmental justice organisations
Community legal support
Research and evidence
Advocacy and organising
PFAS contamination
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) contaminate communities near defence bases and industrial sites:
- Community advocacy for remediation
- Health monitoring for affected communities
- Legal support for affected families
Water rights
Climate justice for vulnerable communities
Environmental monitoring
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, environmental justice is inseparable from Country:
Key issues
Funding for Indigenous environmental justice
Power analysis
Environmental justice work involves challenging powerful interests (mining companies, industrial operators). Show that your programme has a realistic power analysis — who holds power, what leverage you have, what realistic change is possible.
Community leadership
Environmental justice by definition starts with the community that is experiencing harm. Show genuine community leadership — not advocacy organisations speaking for communities, but communities leading their own advocacy with legal and technical support.
Intersectionality
Environmental harm intersects with poverty, race, disability, and geography. Show how your programme understands these intersections — poor communities near mines, Indigenous communities facing climate impacts.
Legal and scientific expertise
Environmental justice requires both legal expertise (EDO model) and scientific evidence (health research, environmental monitoring). Show how you bring both.
Long-term commitment
Environmental justice work is often decades-long — mining operations and their impacts span generations. Show long-term commitment and sustainability, not one-year project funding.
Tahua's grants management platform supports environmental justice funders and community advocacy organisations — with programme outcome tracking, community impact measurement, legal case data, and the reporting tools that help environmental justice funders demonstrate their investment in fairer distribution of environmental benefits and burdens across Australia's communities.