Radioactive Waste Disposal at Sea: Public Ideas ... - IMO

Conclusion 191
social and economic development, about the ultimate goal of minimizing
the total harm inflicted on the environment, and about the need for
research. It is also important to stimulate public deliberation about acceptability
of risks and, more particularly, the costs and benefits of regulating
minute risks. 26 ENGOs may also play a useful role in this regard, but sometimes
it will be necessary that environmental groups and ultimately the
“green public” reexamine their view of the balance between environmental
protection and social and economic development. Nonetheless, as part
of such a process, NGOs from the environmental community (which the
public often trust more than they trust industry, government, and scientists)
and from the private sector should be able to fully participate in the work
of expert groups. Such groups might provide a context within which the
participants can get acquainted with the environmental and health sciences’
advances as well as with difficulties in detecting the impact of minute concentrations
of substances and with the economic and social concerns that
regulation must and should take into account. Also, in regard to radioactive
matters, since the nuclear industry can hardly be said to have an impressive
record of public trust, ENGOs can play an important role as nuclear
watchdogs. 27 This is certainly in the interest of the public, and it might also
be in the self-interest of the industry. Holistic alternatives to present regulation
might also be developed more easily in a context that is less dominated
by the traditions and protocol of international diplomacy. After
several years’ debate, it is encouraging that the 1991 consultative meeting
unanimously agreed that ENGOs such as Greenpeace International could,
in the future, participate in the work of the inter-governmental scientific
working groups established under the global ocean dumping regime.
But it will be necessary to reduce the role of entrepreneurial politics if
environmental policy goals and instruments are to be developed through
public deliberation. To succeed, there would be a need for putting into
place incentives or rewards—at least public and political recognition of
the usefulness of deliberation—to those who stimulate deliberation. The
substantive content of policy should figure prominently, and the symbolic
aspects of policy should be de-emphasized. Although this alone might be
difficult enough to achieve in the environmental field, special-interest
groups should be expected to protect their interests and values vigorously.
Moreover, sustained deliberation is unlikely to flourish in the international