Robert Bullard has watched the concept of environmental justice grow from an obscure notion in Houston in the 1970s into a high-profile global movement aimed at abetting pollution and climate change.

Bullard, a former dean and professor at Texas Southern University, has authored 18 books on environmental justice, and has attended 18 United Nations climate change summits since 2000.

This year he led a robust delegation of community leaders from Texas and the Gulf South to the 27th U.N. Council of the Parties in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Bullard, who has been called the “father of environmental justice,” answered questions from ICN about his thoughts on COP27. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why do they call you the “father of environmental justice?”

In the 1970s I was drafted into collecting data in support of the nation’s first lawsuit challenging environmental racism, Bean v. Southwestern Waste Management Corp.