The concept of a universal precautionary principle apparently has its origins in early German and Swedish thinking about environmental policy, particularly the need for policymakers to practice ...

Biotechnology-altered foods are the focus of a World Trade Organization ruling scheduled for release this month, a landmark event expected to have a major impact on trade in agricultural products, one ...

In a rare show of unity on May 29, 2025, The U.S. Supreme Court justices ruled 8-0 in favor of limiting the scope of the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) The court recognized that despite many ...

The precautionary principle (PP) holds that in the face of scientific uncertainty about the outcomes of deploying a new technology, and especially when serious or irreversible damage could occur, a ...

In 2020, the European Commission introduced the principle into the sustainable finance regulatory framework including for climate indexes, as labelled ‘Paris-aligned’ or ‘climate transition’ ...

The precautionary principle can be summed up in age-old sayings like: “Look before you leap,” “first, do no harm,” or “better safe than sorry.” Put another way, think of Murphy’s law, “if anything can ...

Rupert Read is affiliated with the Green Party. He receives funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council, in his capacity as Principal Investigator on the 2016-18 'Debating Nature's Value' ...

While working on a chapter dealing with the precautionary principle for a new book, I came across a superb essay in The Freeman from economics Nobelist Friedrich Hayek, The Case for Freedom. Taken ...

The problems of the “precautionary principle” received a thorough airing from its critics at a December 12 forum sponsored by the George C. Marshall Institute, a Washington DC-based think tank ...

TOO OFTEN, criticisms of the precautionary principle are viewed as attacks on environmentalism, or the failure to put human health above the profits of industry (C&EN, Jan. 12, page 3). What must be ...

A UK expert giving risk assessment advice to Australia's premier research organisation argues that the precautionary principle is often not applied in the spirit originally intended. Dr Les Levidow, ...