Should the Precautionary Principle be Used to Guide Environmental Policy?

Ethics, Economics and
Environmental Protection

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Origin of the principle..................................................................................................................3
Concept and Definition................................................................................................................4
Unaddressed issues......................................................................................................................6
Different approaches used to environmental ethics.....................................................................6
Restrictions..................................................................................................................................7
The precautionary principle: Good or bad?.................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

“Should the precautionary principle be used to guide environmental policy?”
INTRODUCTION
The precautionary principle (PP) provides that the if there is severe risk of damage or
harm to the public and the environment, then the absence of incontrovertible or scientific proof
pertaining to risk is not considered as a reason for inaction. This principle is based on the
approach of better be safe than sorry in against the traditional approach of wait and see in regard
to the environmental protection. According to this principle, when there are full chances of
uncertainty pertaining to the effect of the activity over environment, then the precautionary
principle advocates corrective and effective actions to anticipate and mitigate harmful effect.
This report, provides a detailed analysis of the precautional principle in respect to guiding the
environmental policy. It covers the origin of the principle, concept and definition, unaddressed
issues of it and the along with its certain restriction.
MAIN BODY
Origin of the principle
The origin of the concept of “precaution” can be found in the history of civilization as in
the early stages, humans had a holistic behaviour to the nature. The nature was versed as the
provider of life any harm to it was taken as unethical but then the things can on to the survival of
humans. The struggle to survive along with protecting the human health has resulted into the
usage of the concept “precaution” (Steel, 2013). The earliest formation of this principle in
respect to the contemporary public policy can be seen in1950s but the huge environmental issues
of 1960s, the case of dichloro diphenyl trichloroethane (DDT) resulted into making the
environmentalist and the policy-makers to again think about their approaches towards meeting
with the uncertainties. Therefore, in the 1970s, it resulted into the establishment of the
precautionary principle which states that the humans and the nature can take certain amount of
disturbance and this can be calculated and controlled. In the mid- 1970s, the legislature of the
Western Germany presented a national policy on environment which incorporated precautional
approach in order to effective protect the environment and it was termed as the Vorsorgeprinzip
and is taken as the most important principle for the German environmental policy.

Concept and Definition
The word is originated from the German word called Vorsorgeprinzip and an alternative
translation of this word would refer to the foresight principle which leads to providing active and
positive impression in contrast to the reactive and negative impression attached with the
precaution (Heffron and et.al., 2018). Even though, this principle was formulated in Germany, it
has taken place all across the globe within the environmental policies in the past 2 decades in
addition to the various environmental treaties involving PP or the purpose of decision-making. In
other words, this principle highlights the basic advice which states that “to err on the side of
caution”. The core objective behind the usage of this principle is to preventing the harm to the
humans, environment and the ecosystem as a whole. There are two formulation of PP which are:
Weak Formulation: It is takes place when actions are not completed due to lack of
scientific consensus and then opposite decision would also result in harm. Thus, it is all about to
provide some kind of authoritative basis on which it is necessary to justify what actually
pragmatic decision to measure environmental risk on any particular occasion. Hence, its main
role is to authorize action is such areas and simply a procedural constraint as well.
Strong Formulation: In this, if there is any chance that harmful outcome will occur and
there is a need to make actions in order to prevent environment (The precautionary principle,
2020). It further has two main characteristic such that it is an exclusive in scope and next is
determinative. Thus, strong formulation also ignore the facts that existing environmental practice
involve different use of agrochemicals that are of high cost.
The basic characteristics of PP includes three important components such as threat of
harm, uncertainty of impact and causality and last is precautionary response. The PP can not only
prompt inaction like stopping the building of hydroelectric dam but can also operate as a licence
for the prevention action leading to irreversible environmental damage. For instance, some states
which were very much inspired by the principle established a moratorium on GMO (genetically
modified organisms). It involves the nations like Peru and Germany, imposed policies pertaining
to banning of the cultivation of GMO crops which is based upon the future uncertainty in regard
to the limited availability of the science on the health of the people and the environment
(Gardiner, 2006). But on the other hand, it is also argued that this would affect the availability of
the food and mostly in the developing nations while the other defended it as by saying an effort