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Full-Text Articles in Environmental Law
Coping With Uncertainty: Cost-Benefit Analysis, The Precautionary Principle, And Climate Change, Daniel A. Farber
Coping With Uncertainty: Cost-Benefit Analysis, The Precautionary Principle, And Climate Change, Daniel A. Farber
Washington Law Review
Climate scientists are confident that greenhouse gases are causing climate change, but it is difficult to predict the severity of future climate change or its local impacts. Unfortunately, we cannot wait for these uncertainties to be resolved before addressing the issue of climate change. Policymakers use two different strategies for setting climate policy in the face of this uncertainty: cost-benefit analysis and the precautionary principle. Although there has been much discussion of these strategies in the abstract, there has been less effort to assess them in operation. This Article analyzes these strategies and considers their application to climate risks in …
Allocating The Costs Of The Climate Crisis: Efficiency Versus Justice, Amy Sinden
Allocating The Costs Of The Climate Crisis: Efficiency Versus Justice, Amy Sinden
Washington Law Review
In the international negotiations aimed at reaching an agreement to reduce the greenhouse-gas emissions that are driving global warming, the developed and developing countries are talking past each other. The developed world is speaking the language of efficiency, while the developing world speaks the language of justice. Economic theory and the concept of efficiency are fine for answering the question of who should reduce, but that is not the contentious issue. When it comes to the hotly contested issue of who should pay, economic theory offers no guidance, and the developing world is right to insist that we look to …