Translation of "Vorsorgeprinzip" into English

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)

Principle connected with the precautionary principle: it means that, if there are strong reasons for expecting serious or irreversible damage to the environment following a given project, lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing cost-effective measures to prevent environmental degradation. Critics of this approach are concerned about large commitments of resources to deal with vaguely defined problems. (Source: GILP96a)