June 2002 Precaution Conference

13-15 June 2002
Airlie Center, Warrenton VA

Organized by the Duke Center for Environmental Solutions,
the European Commission, and The German Marshall Fund

Objectives

Conference Objectives:

• Building greater mutual understanding between the EU and the US on the use of precaution, the "precautionary principle," and risk management in health, safety and environmental regulatory policies in Europe and America;

• Using a case study approach to compare and contrast the actual regulatory approaches taken in Europe and the US to precaution and risk management for a diverse set of risks;

• Drawing lessons for future regulatory policy;

• Identifying topics for further research and dialogue.

This Dialogue is part of a larger Center for Environmental Solutions research project on The Reality of Precaution. The full project description can be found at http://www.env.duke.edu/solutions/precaution_project.html.

Conference Summary:

The second transatlantic dialogue on Risk and Precaution was held at Airlie House outside Washington, D.C., on June 14-15, 2002. It built on the fruitful exchanges of the first dialogue in Bruges and addressed several new case studies. The atmosphere was relaxed and the discussion was frank. Some of the U.S. and European attendees had participated in the first dialogue, but many were first entering the discussion here and focusing on understanding U.S. and European risk regulation in a number of specific instances. While there was some discussion on the meaning of precautionary regulation and how to articulate the precautionary principle, Airlie Dialogue participants devoted most of their energies to learning from each other about actual regulatory practices in their respective jurisdictions. Presentations on regulations regarding genetically modified crops, nuclear energy, climate change, stratospheric ozone depletion, automobile emissions, and cigarette smoking reinforced the impressions of the first dialogue: U.S. and European regulation of health risks varies significantly across cases. The EU acted "earlier and with greater stringency" (i.e., was more precautionary) than the U.S. to regulate genetically modified crops and the greenhouse gas emissions that may yield global climate change, but in the other four cases the U.S. took a more precautionary regulatory approach than the EU.

The European Commission's further summary of the cases and comparisons discussed at the Airlie House Dialogue is available on its website at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/policy_advisers/news_docs/second_dialogue_index_en.htm

Conference Agenda:

THURSDAY 13 JUNE - EVENING

6:00 - 7:00 Arrival & Registration

6:30 - 7:30 Reception/Cocktails

7:30 - 9:00 Dinner

FRIDAY 14 JUNE

7:30 - 8:30 Breakfast & Registration

8:30 - 9:00 Welcome/Participant Introductions

Marianne Ginsburg, German Marshall Fund- US

9:00 - 10:15 Comparing Precuation in the US and Europe
This session will introduce the Dialogue, its objectives, key issues and format. It will include a report on the first Dialogue in this series, held in Bruges, Belgium in January 2002. It will provide an overview of the "conventional wisdom" and the research project to examine the "reality" of precaution in the US and Europe. It will also invite suggestions on the array of risks and issues to study.

Moderator: Dirk Hudig, UNICE & Chair, Risk Forum, European Policy Centre
Speakers: Jonathan Wiener, Duke Center for Environmental Solutions
Michael Rogers, European Commission, Group of Policy Advisers

10:15 - 10:45 Break

10:45 - 11:45 Case Study: Pest-Resistant Crops and Agricultural Biotechnology

Moderator: Indur Goklany, US Department of the Interior
Speaker: Maurice Lex, DG RTD, European Commission

11:45 - 12:45 Case Study: Nuclear Power

Moderator: Anne Petitpierre, University of Geneva
Speaker: John Bickel, Evergreen Safety & Reliability Technologies

12:45-2:00 Lunch

2:00 - 2:30 Lunch Presentation: The FERET Analysis Program

Speaker: Paul Fischbeck, Carnegie Mellon University

2:30 - 3:30 Case Study: Climate (GHGs) and Stratospheric Ozone (CFCs)

Moderator: Cornelia Quennet-Thielen, Deputy Director General, German Federal Ministry for the Environment
Speaker: James Hammitt, Harvard University

3:30 - 4:00 Break

4:00 - 5:00 Case Study: Automobiles - Emissions and Safety

Moderator: Andreas Kraemer, Director, Ecologic
Speaker: Michael Walsh, former Director of Mobile Sources, US EPA

5:00 - 6:00 Break

6:00 - 7:00 Reception/Cocktails

7:00 - 9:00 Dinner

SATURDAY 15 JUNE

7:30 - 8:30 Breakfast

8:30 - 9:45 Case Study: Smoking

Moderator: Patrice Laget, Delegation of the European Commission to the US
Speaker: Elizabeth Fisher, Oxford University

9:30 - 10:00 Break & Checkout

10:00 - 11:00 Information Disclosure by Government and Industry

Moderator: David Roe, Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights
Speaker: Peter Sand, University of Munich

11:00 - 12:00 Risk Perceptions in the US and Europe

Moderator: James Hammitt, Harvard University
Speaker: Bernd Rohrmann, University of Melbourne

12:00 - 1:00 Closing thoughts and discussion of topics for future analysis

Moderator: Jonathan Wiener, Duke University
Speakers: Richard Stewart, NYU
Laurence Tubiana, French Institute of Sustainable Development
Michael Rogers, European Commission

Open discussion

1:00 - 2:30 Lunch

Available Presentations:

Comparing Precuation in the US and Europe
Jonathan Wiener, Duke University, Center for Environmental Solutions
Michael Rogers, European Commission, Group of Policy Advisers

Case Study: Nuclear Power
John Bickel, Evergreen Safety & Reliability Technologies

Case Study: Climate (GHGs) and Stratospheric Ozone (CFCs)
James Hammitt, Harvard University

Case Study: Automobiles
Michael Walsh, former Director of Mobile Sources, US EPA

Case Study: Smoking
Elizabeth Fisher, Oxford University

Information Disclosure by Government and Industry
Peter Sand, University of Munich

Risk Perceptions in the US and Europe
Bernd Rohrmann, University of Melbourne

Participant Biographies

[PDF:airlie_biographies.pdf] [Word:airlie_biographies.doc]

Relevant Publications:

•WP 2001-01 Comparing Precaution in the United States and Europe. J.B. Wiener and M.D. Rogers (revised March 2002). [Abstract] [PDF: wp01.pdf]

•J.D. Graham and J.B. Wiener, eds., Risk vs. Risk: Tradeoffs in Protecting Health and the Environment (Harvard University Press, 1995).

•J.B. Wiener, "Managing the Iatrogenic Risks of Risk Management," 9 Risk: Health Safety & Environment 39-82 (1998) (available at http://www.fplc.edu/risk/vol9/winter/Wiener.pdf ).

•J.B. Wiener, "Risk in the Republic," 8 Duke Envt'l Law & Policy Forum 1-21 (1997) (available at http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/delpf/ ).