precautionary principle Benennung

DefGEMET: Principle adopted by the UN Conference on Environment and Development (1992) that in order to protect the environment, a precautionary approach should be widely applied, meaning that where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage to the environment, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. (Source: GILP96)