Cities Under Pressure: Applying the Natural Rights Index to Guide Urban Sustainability

Urban sustainability has emerged as a dominant framework for designing and evaluating city environments. But is it a genuine solution to the increasing pollution that plagues cities around the world? The reality of rapidly growing urban populations and escalating pollution levels presents a stark contrast to the ideal of sustainable cities. Despite numerous policies and interventions, pollution continues to rise, raising a critical question: Are we targeting the root of the problem, or just its symptoms?

Urban ecosystems, especially in the world’s most polluted cities, face a host of interconnected crises: air pollution, water stress, habitat loss, and weak governance. These vulnerabilities expose the limitations of conventional sustainability frameworks, highlighting that achieving true urban resilience is far more complex than anticipated.

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling in 2025 has the potential to serve as a constitutional moment for urban sustainability, transforming it from a policy ambition to a legal obligation grounded in justice. Under the Natural Rights Led Governance (NRLG) framework, this rule enables cities to become custodians of both people’s rights and nature’s sovereignty, particularly in a climate-threatened world.

ICJ Ruling Theme	Urban Implications	Reinforcement of NRLG
Legal Duty to Reduce Emissions	Greening cities, emission zoning, clean transport	Duty of Care & Low-Carbon Stewardship
Right to Life & Health	Urban air quality, water safety, heat-resilient design	Protection of Life, Health, and Property
Intergenerational Justice	Sustainable urban planning, education, mobility	Future-Proof Cities under Natural Rights
Ecosystem Integrity	Urban wetlands, forests, biodiversity corridors	Rights of Nature in Urban Zones
Equity and Justice	Inclusive housing, anti-slum eviction, climate finance	Shared Rights and Reparative Justice
Public Participation	Empowering city councils, civic engagement	Community Stewardship & Participatory Governance

Natural Rights and the Deteriorating of Urban Ecosystem

In many of these polluted cities, urban natural degradation violates basic natural rights. These rights form the foundation of our understanding of sustainable urban living. Natural Rights is a transformative framework by M. Zakir Hossain Khan in his book Sovereignty for Nature, Survival for all focused on Natural Rights Led Governance Towards Sustainable Future.

Natural Rights framework offers the Paradigm of Natural Rights Led Governance:

a)     Life or Self-Dignity: This is the most fundamental natural right, asserting that every being has an inherent right to exist free from harm. In cities with extreme pollution levels, the right to life is violated by hazardous air quality, contaminated water, and other environmental risks.

b)    Liberty or Freedom: Individuals should be able to live freely and pursue happiness without being hindered by environmental harm. In polluted cities, residents are often forced to breathe toxic air, live in flood-prone areas, and suffer from diseases caused by environmental neglect.

c)     Social Harmony and Justice: A society where the rights of individuals are respected is necessary for peaceful coexistence. Unfortunately, the widespread pollution in urban environments creates deep inequities, often disproportionately affecting vulnerable populations, including low-income communities and marginalized groups.

d)    Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Culture: Indigenous peoples, with their traditional knowledge of environmental stewardship, are often sidelined in urban planning. The loss of natural habitats and ecosystems leads to the erasure of vital cultural practices and wisdom, which contribute to biodiversity and sustainability.

However, the concept of urban sustainability appears to fall short when faced with overwhelming pollution and degradation. The cities with the highest pollution levels are often characterized by a complex web of weaknesses that inhibit meaningful action.

The Urban Natural Rights Index (UNRI), work in progress by the Change Initiative, is currently conducting research into the world’s topmost polluted countries. The Urban Natural Rights Index (UNRI), the study in progress by the Change Initiative, considers multiple variables in its assessment. Based on global pollution rankings (Numbeo, 2025)[1], highly polluted cities have been selected for the analysis to draw attention of the policymakers and raise effective demand of the citizens towards natural rights led prosperity rather than ecosystem degrading development myth.

This analysis highlights pollution exposure across cities situated in diverse ecological contexts and explores ecological strategies to promote sustainability in different urban environments. Using the UNRI framework, which assesses key pillars such as Consumption[2], Pressures[3], Species[4], Water Bodies, Forests, Built-up Areas, and Governance, these cities are evaluated to benchmark their ecological and social impacts. This approach offers a structured lens for understanding the condition and resilience of urban ecosystems.

UNRI allows us to identify these issues and assess urban environments on key indicators. While each city has its own strengths, it’s clear that weak governance, pollution, and inadequate infrastructure persist across many of the most polluted areas. What emerges from these findings is a more complex picture of urban life, where pollution and environmental degradation are not just products of neglect but are ingrained in the very design of cities.

The graph shows a strong negative relationship between UNRI scores and pollution levels with the regression line. Both the coefficient and R square strongly imply that cities with higher natural rights alignment experience significantly lower pollution.[5]

In the axes of the graph UNRI Score (x-axis) vs. Pollution Index (y-axis); the results have been separated by color code: 

Red = Poor UNRI and high pollution (e.g., Karachi, Dhaka)

Orange = Transitional cluster (e.g., New Delhi, Addis Ababa)

Green = Strong NRLG alignment and lower pollution (e.g., Helsinki, Singapore)

Dhaka (30, 94.6) lies as outlier, showing that its pollution level is much worse than predicted for its UNRI score, while Columbus (30, 29.9) falls far below the regression line, meaning its pollution is much lower than expected. The red-coded cluster in the upper left Karachi, Lahore, and Byrnihat combines low UNRI scores with high pollution, placing them in the worst position. New Delhi and Addis Ababa (which has taken steps like increasing green space) along with Sarajevo (benefiting from relatively good governance) show somewhat better UNRI scores but still face high pollution levels.

Source: Change Initiative (2025)

On the other side, the green-coded cluster on the bottom right, Columbus, Brasília, Singapore, Sydney, Amsterdam, Stockholm, and Helsinki, reflects high UNRI scores paired with low pollution levels, a sign of strong rights protection and cleaner environments. The bottom-right quadrant represents the space where UNRI scores are good, but pollution levels remain higher than desirable; if pollution can be reduced further here, these cities would fully consolidate their position in the best-performing group.

Is Urban Sustainability Achievable?

As pollution continues to choke our cities and fracture their ecological foundations, we are confronted with a sobering question: If urban sustainability is truly the compass guiding our future, why does the needle still point toward collapse?

The failure is not merely in policy or infrastructure, it is in imagination, in morality, in governance. Perhaps the prevailing notion of sustainability, measured by carbon offsets and smart grids, is too narrow, too sterile. Perhaps it fails to grasp that cities are not just built environments, but living communities whose survival depends on justice, dignity, and the sacred right to breathe clean air, drink safe water, and live free from environmental harm.

Urban sustainability must evolve, from a technocratic vision to a rights-based revolution. It must be about restoring natural rights, not just metrics; ensuring governance with equity, not just efficiency; and preserving the life force of cities, not just their skylines.

The future of our cities and the billions who call them home, depends on this shift. If we dare to reimagine cities not as engines of extraction, but as sanctuaries of life, then sustainability becomes not just achievable, but inevitable. Let us not settle for survival. Let us legislate for dignity. Let us govern for justice. Let us design for life.

Annexure: Detailed UNRI and Pollution Scores | Source: Change Initiative (2025)

[1] Numbeo. (2025). Pollution Index by City 2025. Retrieved September 4, 2025, from https://www.numbeo.com/pollution/rankings.jsp  

[2] Measures the resources a city’s population uses, including energy, water, and materials.

[3] Air and water pollution, waste generation, traffic emissions, and industrial discharges.

[4] Assesses biodiversity and habitat quality within the city.

[5] Pollution Index=-5.4934 UNRI+237.79; R^(2 )=0.723