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Interview — Does the polluter pay?

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Article Published 15 Oct 2020 Last modified 29 Aug 2023

4 min read

Photo: © Perry Wunderlich, REDISCOVER Nature/EEA

A simple but powerful idea lies at the heart of environmental laws in the EU: the ‘polluter pays’ principle. This principle has been applied in the form of taxes, fines and other measures, such as quotas for pollutant emissions and the Environmental Liability Directive. We talked to Professor Geert Van Calster about this principle, its benefits and shortcomings.