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Precautionary Principle

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  • First Online:
Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management

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Synonyms

“Vorsorgeprinzip”

Definition

The Precautionary Principle is an environmental policy principle used in legislation, policy, and risk management. New technologies like climate engineering, genetically modified crops, nanotechnology, or artificial intelligence are often linked to risks, which are difficult to predict. The Precautionary Principle is applied in decision-making about uncertain but plausible threats to human health or the environment, e.g., as a consequence of using new technologies. In situations which lack scientific certainty, it can be challenging to find the right measures to protect human health or the environment from harm. Put simply, the Precautionary Principle states that lack of certainty shall not be a reason to refrain from taking action to tackle a threat. In other words, it says that in a situation of uncertainty, regulatory action might be a good option (even if scientific data are incomplete or controversial). The Precautionary Principle should be...

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References

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Communication and Environment, Rhine-Waal University of Applied Sciences, Kamp-Lintfort, Germany

    Daniela Lud

Authors
  1. Daniela Lud
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Correspondence to Daniela Lud .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. London Metropolitan University, Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law London Metropolitan University, London, UK

    Samuel Idowu

  2. Cologne Business School, Ingolstadt, Germany

    René Schmidpeter

  3. College of Business, Loyola University New Orleans, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Nicholas Capaldi

  4. International Training Centre of the IL, International Labor Organization, Turin, Italy

    Liangrong Zu

  5. Department of Economics, Society and Politics, University of Urbino Carlo Bo, Urbino, Italy

    Mara Del Baldo

  6. Instituto Politécnico da Guarda, Guarda, Portugal

    Rute Abreu

Section Editor information

  1. School of Energy Systems, Lappeenranta University of Technology, Lappeenranta, Finland

    Mirja Mikkilä

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Lud, D. (2020). Precautionary Principle. In: Idowu, S., Schmidpeter, R., Capaldi, N., Zu, L., Del Baldo, M., Abreu, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Sustainable Management. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_168-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02006-4_168-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-02006-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Business and ManagementReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences

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