Santa Monica (USA) city ordinance: sustainability and rights of nature (2013)

Summary

In 2013, Santa Monica, California passed an ordinance recognizing rights of nature and mandating the city to take sustainability into account while decision-making. The ordinance states that “the City is committed to fully implementing its Sustainable City Plan to further effectuate inherent rights of the people and natural communities of the City of Santa Monica” (p. 4)

Rights of Santa Monica Residents and The Natural Environment (4.75.040)
Natural communities and ecosystems possess fundamental and inalienable rights to exist and flourish in the City Of Santa Monica. To effectuate those rights on behalf of the environment, residents of the City may bring actions to protect these natural communities and ecosystems, defined as: groundwater aquifers, atmospheric systems, marine waters, and native species within the boundaries of the City. (p. 6-7)

The ordinance states that “these rights are not sufficiently safeguarded by the existing body of local, national and international environmental policies and laws, which are grossly inadequate to avert the mounting environmental crisis.” (p. 5) It notes that state and federal environmental laws such as the Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act and California Environmental Quality Act, limit pollution and resource consumption, but they “have proven inadequate to provide long-term protection of our rights to clean air, water, and soil, and sustainable food systems, and the rights of natural ecosystems.” It states that the inadequacy of those laws results from the underlying legal assumption that the natural world is “property” which may be used for private, short-term economic benefit, with minimal regard for the health of the environment. (p. 2)

The ordinance was spearheaded by civil action group Santa Monica Neighbors Unite!, NGO’s CELDF and Earth Law Center, and city council advisory group Task Force on the Environment. The ordinance is still in effect.