Strategies for Managing Global Environmental Risks: Annual Report 1998 (World in Transition, 1998)

Global risk potentials and their interplay with economic, social and ecological processes of change have emerged as a challenge to the international community. Never before has human intervention in nature assumed global dimensions. This has been driven on the one hand by a growing global population, particularly in developing countries, and on the other hand by rising human aspirations in conjunction with specific patterns of production and consumption, above all in industrialized countries. By presenting this report, the Council hopes to contribute constructively to an effective, efficient and objective management of the risks of global change. The approach taken by the Council is first to classify globally relevant risks and then to assign to these classes of risk both established and innovative risk assessment strategies and risk management tools. On this basis, management priorities can be set. However, the Council notes that it is impossible to safeguard against all global risks, particularly as exploiting opportunities will always entail taking risks. To keep the risks to the international community posed by global change as small as possible, the Council recommends a number of cross-cutting strategies for international policies. These include worldwide alignment of liability law, creation of environmental liability funds, establishment of a United Nations Risk Assessment Panel and implementation of strategies aimed at reducing vulnerability to risk. The scientists further put the case for improving research promotion and maintaining basic research that is free of vested interests. Front Matter....Pages I-XXIV Front Matter....Pages 1-1 Global change: A fresh approach to new risks....Pages 3-5 Localizing risks in normal, transitional and prohibited areas....Pages 6-9 Categorization according to risk classes....Pages 10-12 Class-specific strategies and tools for action....Pages 13-20 Prime recommendations for action....Pages 21-25 Introduction....Pages 27-31 Front Matter....Pages 33-33 Risk: Concepts and implications....Pages 35-45 Categories of damage and criteria for selecting globally relevant environmental risks....Pages 46-51 Risk characterization....Pages 52-55 Constructing a typology of risk....Pages 56-64 Front Matter....Pages 65-65 Introduction....Pages 67-67 Technological risks....Pages 68-80 Infectious diseases as a global risk....Pages 81-92 Biological risks....Pages 93-110 Biogeochemical and chemical risks....Pages 111-125 Climate risks....Pages 126-139 Natural disasters....Pages 140-148 Synopsis: An overview of global risk potentials....Pages 149-151 Front Matter....Pages 153-153 Risk modulators (amplifiers and intervening factors)....Pages 155-175 Specific vulnerabilities of regions and social groups....Pages 176-185 Front Matter....Pages 153-153 Examples of complex risks....Pages 186-193 Risk potentials of complex environmental systems....Pages 194-211 Risk evaluation and the choice of tools....Pages 215-220 Liability....Pages 221-230 Environmental liability funds....Pages 231-233 Permitting procedures....Pages 234-236 Environmental levies and tradeable permits....Pages 237-241 Political strategies....Pages 242-250 Risk communication....Pages 251-257 Discursive approaches....Pages 258-262 Front Matter....Pages 263-263 The importance of unknown risks: Preventing ‘future ozone holes’....Pages 265-269 Discovering unknown risks as an environmental policy task....Pages 270-278 The importance of cognitive, motivational and social factors for dealing with unknown risks....Pages 279-283 Preventive risk management under uncertainty....Pages 284-292 Synthesis....Pages 293-294 Front Matter....Pages 295-295 Recommendations for research....Pages 297-302 Recommendations for political action....Pages 303-313 References....Pages 315-339 Back Matter....Pages 341-359