Economics,Ethics and Water Pollution Control

Abstract

This article examines the United Kingdom government's proposals for economically formulated charges for discharges of effluent into the aquatic environment set out in the consultation paper Economic Instruments for Water Pollution (1997). Although the proposals have now been abandoned, it is suggested that the difficulties to which they gave rise indicate some deeper causes of concern in the use of economic instruments to regulate pollution control generally. The arguments for economic instruments in relation to effluent discharge are examined in the light of their potential environmental and legal implications, and it is concluded that many of the proposed justifications for such instruments lack practical validity. Ultimately, the choices to be made between legal and economic regulation have an important ethical dimension which links to the characterisations of ‘sustainable development’ and ‘environmental citizenship’. In so far as economic instruments are capable of over-riding ethical concerns in respect of the environment, their application in practice is difficult to justify. Hence, the different roles and spheres of operation of law and economics in environmental protection need to be recognised and zealously guarded.