Precautionary principle environmental8/20/2023 ![]() ![]() has no official policy of defaulting to the precautionary principle where uncertainty exists, meaning the degree of precaution often depends on the issue and on the regulating body. ![]() in the regulation of certain issues, such as in new drug approval and particulate air pollution. in fact exercises a more stringent precautionary approach than the E.U. As Jonathan Weiner and Michael Rogers argue, the U.S. Article 191(2) states that ‘preventative action should be taken, that environmental damage should as a priority be rectified at the source and that the polluter should pay’. has enshrined a ‘better safe than sorry’ approach by codifying the precautionary principle as part of its environmental policy. While usually discussed in the context of environmental protection laws, the precautionary principle can be applied to virtually all areas of regulation where science is involved and an evidence-based policy is preferred, including public health, emerging technologies, biodiversity management and conservation.įundamentally, the E.U. ![]() The ‘principle’ of a precautionary approach is defined in the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development, which states, ‘where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental deregulation’. In these situations, the precautionary principle comes into play.ĭesigned to deal with the inevitability of uncertainty that leaves governments dealing with scientific issues without a definite scientific consensus from which to make evidence-based decisions, the precautionary principle is a core principle of European Union environmental law, enshrined in Article 191(2) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the E.U. Where governments differ is where there is incomplete data for there to be a scientific consensus from which to base laws and regulations, where there’s a lack of agreement among the scientific community over the potential adverse effects of the issue in question, or where the potential harms are known but cause-effect relationships have not been established. Most western states agree that risk management policy dealing with scientific issues like the environment should be evidence-based, meaning all available scientific evidence is considered in the drafting process. As governments try to grapple with enormous, science-based global issues like climate change, the efficacy of environmental protection laws and regulations are increasingly being examined. ![]()
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