Environmental Inequality in Industrial Brownfields: Evidence from French Municipalities

55 Pages Posted: 24 Mar 2023

See all articles by Charlotte Sophia Bez

Charlotte Sophia Bez

affiliation not provided to SSRN

Michael Ash

UMass-Amherst - Department of Economics; CPPA, UMass-Amherst

James K. Boyce

University of Massachusetts at Amherst - College of Social and Behavioral Sciences - Department of Economics

Abstract

Recent research on environmental inequality has extended its focus from ongoing pollution to legacy pollution by examining the geography of industrial brownfields, defined as non-productive, contaminated land. This article is the first extensive brownfield analysis for a European country from an environmental inequality perspective, exploiting the political momentum in France where brownfield restoration has become a national priority. In doing so, we combine data on over 7,200 industrial brownfields from the 2022 geodatabase ‘Cartofriches’ with socio-economic variables at the municipality level. We demonstrate communities with higher percentages of foreign-born and unemployed persons are disproportionately more likely to be located near brownfields. The social gradient increases significantly in communities that host many brownfields, the so-called hotspots. There is an inverted U-shaped relationship with income, with a positive correlation until the 75th percentile (€23,700 annually). These findings are robust to different controls, including across urban and rural areas, though with regional differences. Further, we also account for the location of noxious industrial facilities sourced from the E-PRTR database to show the existence of cumulative impacts of environmental risks. Our analysis provides crucial entry points for restorative environmental justice considerations and has important implications for Europe’s just transition and cohesion policies.

Keywords: Environmental inequality, Industrial brownfields, Racial and socio-economicdisparities, Cumulated impacts, Hotspots

Suggested Citation

Bez, Charlotte Sophia and Ash, Michael and Boyce, James K., Environmental Inequality in Industrial Brownfields: Evidence from French Municipalities. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=4399366 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4399366

Charlotte Sophia Bez (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

Michael Ash

UMass-Amherst - Department of Economics ( email )

10th Floor Thompson Hall
Amherst, MA 01003
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.umass.edu/economics

CPPA, UMass-Amherst

Department of Operations and Information Managemen
Amherst, MA 01003
United States

HOME PAGE: http://www.masspolicy.net

James K. Boyce

University of Massachusetts at Amherst - College of Social and Behavioral Sciences - Department of Economics ( email )

10th Floor Thompson Floor
Amherst, MA 01003
United States
413-545-0915 (Phone)

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