ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY
8.6 Six rules for a precautionary worldTim O’Riordan has identified the following
guidelines to help policymakers put the
precautionary principle into practice:- Where unambiguous scientific proof of
cause and effect is not available, it is
necessary to act with a duty of care. - Where the benefits of early action are
judged to be greater than the likely costs of
delay, it is appropriate to take a lead and to
inform society why such action is being
taken. - Where there is the possibility of irreversible
damage to natural life-support functions,
precautionary action should be taken
irrespective of the forgone benefits.
4. Always listen to calls for a change of course,
incorporate representatives of such calls
into deliberative forums, and maintain
transparency throughout.
5. Never shy away from publicity and never try
to suppress information, however
unpalatable. In the age of the internet,
someone is bound to find out if information
is being distorted or hidden.
6. Where there is public unease, act decisively
to respond to that unease by introducing
extensive discussions and deliberative
techniques.
From Economic and Social Research
Council ( 1999 : 17).narrow sectoral objectives with little consideration for their overall envi-
ronmental impact. This fragmentation of responsibility is a major obstacle
tosustainable development because environmental considerations need to
be integrated into the formulation and implementation of policies in every
sector. Individual ministries must broaden their horizons and discard their
narrow compartmentalised concerns. Integration involves the creation of
new structures, the reform of existing institutions and the transformation
of established policymaking processes. In short, it requires an administra-
tive revolution. However, as the previous chapter showed, there are many
structural and political barriers impeding integration.Planning
Sustainable development must be planned. Only free-market environmen-
talists believe that the unfettered market can, of its own volition, produce
sustainable development. There are too many complex interdependencies
between political, social and economic factors to leave it to chance; equally,
those same complexities set limits as to what can be achieved by planning.
What is at issue is not ‘whether’ but ‘how much’ planning should take
place – and which policy instruments should be used.
Agenda 21 makes clear that every level of government – supranational,
national, regional and local – has to plan sustainable development strategies.
This exhortation is not a recipe for a state-planned economy. An active plan-
ning role does not mean that the government has to shoulder the respon-
sibility for implementing sustainable development alone. On the contrary,
thesustainable development discourse is enthusiastic about partnerships
with a wide range of non-state actors.