Spash, Stagl and Getzner " Exploring Alternatives for Environmental Valuation " Chapter 1 from Alternatives for Environmental Valuation Getzner, Spash & Stagl (eds.) London: Routledge, 2005 1 1 Exploring Alternatives for Environmental Valuation

Introduction The method of inclusion of environmental resources and ecosystem services in decision processes determines how far they are taken into account with results affecting the quality of our lives and those of future generations. A persistent argument has been that monetary valuation is essential if the 'environment' is to have any chance of being included in government and business decisions. Environmental cost-benefit analysis (CBA) was developed by environmental economists in order to achieve this monetisation of environmental entities so that the prices in market economies might be adjusted. A range of methods were developed including travel cost, hedonic pricing, production function analysis, contingent valuation and choice modelling (see Hanley and Spash 1993; Spash and Carter 2002). The overall aim has been to select project options on the basis of their welfare impacts and to support government taxes which reflect the social costs of environmental degradation. This approach has met with some success in that various national and international agencies have been interested in performing monetary valuation exercises as part of their overall assessment of projects. The idea of environmental taxation has also risen on the political agenda if remaining limited in practice. 1 However, there has also been criticism of environmental CBA, or more specifically some of the studies conducted under that guise. Critiques can be broadly grouped into those concerned with the theoretical foundations of economic values, and those looking at the validity of specific numbers being produced and the tools employed. In the former case Kapp (1950) provides an isolated early example which shows the limits to monetary as opposed to other values in society. More recently environmental philosophers have produced a whole body of literature showing the narrowness of value theory typically expressed by economists and the failure of economic training to place this theory in the context of wider social values (see O'Neill 1993). Reflecting upon this literature Spash, Stagl and Getzner " Exploring alternatives for environmental valuation " Chapter 1 From Alternatives for Environmental Valuation Getzner, Spash & Stagl (eds.) London: Routledge, 2005 2 requires realising that most economics concerns consequentialism using a form of preference-based utilitarianism, which is a very specific philosophy of value rather than a generally accepted meta ethic which can be universally applied. In trying to address the environmental problems of the 20 th Century economic value theory has shown itself lacking in several areas such as the treatment of …