Beyond distribution: environmental justice challenges of Indigenous communities across the Circumpolar North

Ajishnu Roy 

The Circumpolar North is warming at an unprecedented pace, accelerating entrenched environmental injustices against Indigenous peoples. Although the disproportionate distribution of these harms is paramount, in this review, we contend that an exclusive emphasis on distribution is analytically inadequate. An inclusive multidimensional framework of environmental justice has been introduced that rigorously analyzes procedural, recognitional, and restorative injustices that systematically generate and perpetuate these unequal outcomes. By synthesizing findings, this review chronicles how climate impacts, ranging from sea-ice melting to permafrost thawing, are inextricably entangled with governance failure, sidelining of Indigenous knowledge, and unaddressed past legacies. The discussion also probes the structural design of these injustices, founded on colonial continuums and prevailing political economies, such as ‘green colonialism’. Finally, the review maps evidence-based directions forward, highlighting the urgency of Indigenous-led governance, epistemic justice in the form of knowledge co-production, and legal reforms responding to the legal determinants of health. Placing Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination at the center is not simply a question of equity but an essential condition for successful and sustainable climate adaptation and justice in the Circumpolar North.