The Polluter Pays Principle

Muhammad Munir has posted "History and Development of the Polluter Pays Principle", an article tracing the history of the often-invoked principle in economic and legal thought. The article begins with economists AC Pigou, AV Kneese, and others, and proceeds through legal developments, including the 1968 Draft Declaration of Principles on Air Pollution Control by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and an OECD seminar in 1971. The abstract:

from EESC glossaries

This work traces the history of the polluter pays principle (the PPP) in the early economic literature from 1920s. The OECD recommended the PPP as the ‘Guiding Principle Concerning the International Economic Aspects of Environmental Policies’ in 1972. In 1973 the Council of the European Communities approved the First Program of Action on the Environment and the PPP was made one of the principles of Community environmental policy. The PPP has been mentioned as one of the principles in many regional and international conventions the PPP remains as a principle of environmental policy. The polluter pays principle is one of the most efficient principles of environmental policies.