When production processes threaten or cause damage to the environment, the cost of necessary environmental measures should be borne by the producer and not society at large, giving incentives to reduce pollution.
The principle to be used for allocating costs of pollution prevention and control measures to encourage rational use of scarce environmental resources and to avoid distortions in international trade and investment. This means that the polluter should bear the expenses of carrying out the above-mentioned measures decided by public authorities to ensure that the environment is in an acceptable state.
Under this principle, the person or organisation that produces pollution (including waste) is held responsible for it. Linked to Producer Responsibility.
is enshrined within the Directive requiring that the polluter of the water environment should pay, provided this is established through fair pricing policies.
A principle that ensures that a charge per unit of pollution emitted into the ecosystem is charged to those responsible for such pollution in order to internalise the cost thereof.
The principle that countries should in some way compensate others for the effects of pollution that they (or their citizens) generate or have generated.
The Polluter Pays Principle is a principle in international environmental law where the polluting party pays for the damage done to the natural environment. It is regarded as a regional custom because of the strong support it has received in most Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and European Community (EC) countries. International environmental law itself mentions little about the principle.