ABSTRACT
The idea of environmental citizenship has “humble origins in a 1990s Environment Canada publication” (Paehlke 2008 : 359). In the past 20 years, it has become a signifi cant practical ideal in global environmental politics. It has been advocated by international organizations, such as the United Nations Environment Programme, as well as national governments and state agencies in countries as different as Canada and Qatar (see Chapters 8 and 12 ). It has also been promoted by various non-state actors, including the US-based Center for Environmental Citizenship and the Harvard Medical School Center for Health and the Global Environment (see Chapter 14 ). There is, by now, a basic understanding among those interested in environmental politics, and among some sections of the wider public, of the idea of environmental citizenship. The environmental citizen is someone who “does their bit” for the environment. At a (sceptical) minimum, the environmental citizen recycles and installs energy saving light bulbs. More ambitiously, and more generally, the environmental citizen is concerned about sustainability and, especially, about reducing or limiting their impact on the environment. In other words, talking about environmental citizenship is a popular way of reframing discussions of environmental responsibilities (and, sometimes, environmental rights).
