RCEP's prescription on environmental standards for a new millenium

Traditional ways of setting environmental standards no longer command public confidence, according to the Royal Commission on Environmental Pollution (RCEP). Its latest report, though advocating a continuing central role for rigorous analysis of environmental problems, proposes revisions in the presentation of scientific findings and risk assessments. But its most important recommendations are that innovative methods of eliciting people's values must be used to integrate public concerns into the policy-making process from the outset, backed by greater transparency and accountability at every stage. ¹