Justifying precautionary policies: Incommensurability and uncertainty

• Autores: Jonathan Aldred
• Localización: Ecological Economics, ISSN-e 1873-6106, Nº. 96, 2013, págs. 132-140
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • When decisions are taken in conditions of Keynesian or Knightian uncertainty, and when there is a threat of serious or irreversible environmental damage, the Precautionary Principle is often recommended to guide decision-making. However, the Precautionary Principle has been widely criticised. In response to these criticisms, a qualitative version of the Precautionary Principle is developed which draws its normative content from a blend of formal decision theory and political philosophy. It is argued that precautionary action can be justified by some flexible combination of uncertainty and incommensurability. The �greater� the uncertainty, the �less� incommensurability is required to justify precautionary action, and vice versa. Throughout the paper, the arguments are explored using the example of climate change decision problems.