This study, pinpoints six ‘Critical Discursive Moments’, arriving at the recent past, examining how instruments, originally established to protect the environment facilitate extreme intersectoral conflict that constitutes a form of ‘symbolic violence’, through misrepresentation and misrecognition of environmental impacts.

The link between public (and increasingly private) investment in mega-road projects and growing emissions appears to have escaped the attention of the processes that oversee public project decisions – panel hearings, ministerial processes and environmental impact assessments.