Regulating the electricity supply industry by valuing environmental effects

Stirling, Andy

doi:10.1016/0016-3287(92)90135-3

Cited by 11 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 52 publications

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“…Such is tacitly the claim of approaches such as environmental cost benefit analysis, which-by use of 'experimental market' techniques such as contingent valuation-aspire (and often claim) to derive a single cardinal ranking order over a series of policy, technology or investment options which reflect the 'real', 'true' or 'full' nature of the associated environmental burdens. 46,47 Under this newly emerging orthodoxy, aspirations to find a simple 'analytical fix' for the social problems of risk become futile. In a modern pluralistic industrial society, with the enfranchisement of constituencies and interest groups with radically different (but equally legitimate) perspectives, the question is not 'how can we make the public more rational about risk?'.…”

Section: An Underlying Trendmentioning

confidence: 99%

Risk at a turning point?

Stirling

1999

J. Environ. Med.

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There is increasing recognition in comparative risk assessment of the intrinsic comparative risk assessment subjectivity of fundamental framing assumptions and the consequent necessity environmental economics for active participation in analysis by all interested and affected parties. Despite cultural theory this, there remains considerable inertia in the implementation of these insights social construction in formal policy making and regulatory procedures on risk. Here, the issue seems as often to be seen as a need for better 'communication' and 'management' as for better analysis, with attention devoted as much to the classification of divergent public perspectives as to techniques for direct stakeholder participation.Pointing to the fundamental methodological problems posed in risk assessment by the conditions of ignorance and Arrow's impossibility, the present paper contends that public participation is as much a matter of analytical rigour as it is of political legitimacy. It is argued that straightforward techniques such as multicriteria and sensitivity analysis, along with a formal approach to diversification across portfolios of 'less risky' options, may go some way toward addressing these apparently intractable problems.

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Section: An Underlying Trendmentioning

confidence: 99%