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 degradation (Rio Declaration 1992, Principle 15).Ī stronger definition can be found in an EU communication: In order to protect the environment, the precautionary approach shall be widely applied by States according to their capabilities. However, there is no universally accepted definition of the principle. The precautionary principle is based on the adage that ‘it is better to be safe than sorry’. However, some laws have a precautionary nature, and the principle underpins much of the early environmental legislation in this country (The National Environmental Policy Act, The Clean Water Act, and The Endangered Species Act). In the United States e.g., the precautionary principle is not expressly mentioned in laws or policies. On a national level, several countries have used the precautionary principle to guide their environmental and public health policy. The precautionary principle then flourished in international statements of policy. The ‘Vorsorgeprinzip’ was developed into a fundamental principle of German environmental law and invoked to justify the implementation of robust policies to tackle acid rain, global warming and North Sea pollution. The precautionary principle traces its origins to the early 1970s in the German principle ‘Vorsorge’, or foresight, based on the belief that the society should seek to avoid environmental damage by careful forward planning. The emergence of increasingly unpredictable, uncertain and unquantifiable but possibly catastrophic risks has confronted societies with the need to develop an anticipatory model in order to protect humans and the environment against these uncertain risks of human action: the precautionary principle. On the other hand, science and technology have also contributed to the creation of new threats to human existence or quality of life. Science and technology can help in diminishing some risks of nature, as it is the case, for example, with life expectancy. Human life is full of risks which we have to deal with.
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