SAFE MINIMUM STANDARDS - COSTS AND OPPORTUNITIES

Authors
Citation
Tm. Crowards, SAFE MINIMUM STANDARDS - COSTS AND OPPORTUNITIES, Ecological economics, 25(3), 1998, pp. 303-314
Citations number
33
Categorie Soggetti
Economics,Ecology,"Environmental Sciences
Journal title
ISSN journal
09218009
Volume
25
Issue
3
Year of publication
1998
Pages
303 - 314
Database
ISI
SICI code
0921-8009(1998)25:3<303:SMS-CA>2.0.ZU;2-H
Abstract
A 'Safe Minimum Standards' approach to environmental protection repres ents a supplement to cost-benefit analysis which places greater emphas is on the protection of the environment wherever thresholds of irrever sible damage are threatened. It is based on the rationale of minimisin g maximum possible losses so long as the social costs of doing so are not 'unacceptable'. However, the concept of Safe Minimum Standards has been otherwise interpreted as justifying an abandonment of the need t o quantify benefits deriving from preservation of the environment. It is frequently claimed that it is the opportunity costs of preservation ,-i.e. the benefits of a proposed development-which represent the soci al costs of imposing a Safe Minimum Standards decision rule. Such a pa rtial opportunity costs approach is not only contrary to the original concept, but may serve only to justify accepting the largest, and poss ibly most environmentally damaging, development projects. It is theref ore also likely to produce recommendations that are contrary to what m ost proponents of the Safe Minimum Standards approach would endorse. I nstead, it is proposed that SMS should be interpreted as favoring pres ervation in the face of irreversible environmental damage, unless the social costs of forgone development-defined as the benefits of develop ment net of the expected benefits of environmental preservation that w ill be lost-are unacceptable. In this way, it can serve to moderate re commendations formulated according to underlying economic efficiency c riteria, with respect to other, perhaps conflicting, social priorities . (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.