Risk-Based Regulatory Approaches in the USA and EU: Comparison and Applications in Energy, Climate, Cybersecurity and Nanotechnology

Igor Linkov, PhD

US Army Engineer Research and Development Center

Adjunct Professor, Carnegie Mellon

 

Policy Decision Models and Risk Based Regulatory Approaches

When: Wed June 19, from 6pm

Where: Ihnestrasse 22, Room 3.1.c., FFU

 

The emerging technologies (e.g., nanotechnology and cybersecurity) and high uncertainty associated with future (e.g., energy and climate) are all characterized by necessity to integrate highly uncertain and often contradictory information to make policy decisions.  The US, EU and other governments call for adopting and implementing risk-based standards to identify high-risk areas and select alternatives for risk mitigation, but what does it mean for a standard to be “risk-based”?  Risk is traditionally defined as a triplet consisting of what can go wrong, how likely it is to happen, and the consequences of it happening.  Both qualitative and quantitative approaches to risk analysis have been widely used for setting risk-based standards, but there remain significant challenges impeding their use for emerging and evolving threats.