Environmental Valuation

“Environmental valuation involves placing monetary values on environmental goods and services, and on changes in environmental quality resulting from certain actions or inaction” (OECD). Quite a few different methods have been developed within this discipline. Neither is completely satisfying though. Some of the difficulties are due to the same reasons that it is problematic to do an assessment for environmental damage causing health effects on humans; the “lack of scientific knowledge about causal relationships and lack of relevant data to establish one” (Idem, p.25). Additional problems arise relating to the assignment of ‘value’ to the object of potential protection, many natural environmental goods and services are not subject to market transactions and their value is not revealed directly by market prices. Obviously the first set of difficulties doesn’t help the second. This report is part of BSUEZAGRE013 “Assessment of radiation exposure to the environment and non-human biota and associated risk linked with NPP liquid discharges of Tihange and Doel”. This deliverable addresses the question to attribute a monetary value to the radiological impact on the environment and to reflect upon the impact on the non-human biota as compared to the impact on mankind.