Reinventing rules for environmental risk governance in the energy sector

Abstract

The debate over expert versus laypeople participation in risk analysis has deep theoretical roots. It also has practical implications, with both camps often attempting to assign the blame for shortcomings in risk analysis to the other side's faulty approach. A fairly recent concept in risk analysis, risk governance attempts to put the strengths of each camp into productive use by making them work together toward the same goal. Yet the legal and regulatory frameworks for implementation of the non-technical context of risk governance, as well as the underlying theoretical concepts, need development. This paper attempts to elaborate on the theoretical foundations of the debate and its practical applications, and propose an agenda for future research.