Let me start from the end: recent years indicate that the world is moving in the right direction by increasing environmental awareness and attempting to deal with immediate and long-term environmental threats on an ongoing basis. But the path to achieving these result- like any transition from one point to another-involves significant costs for some and severe consequences for others. Responsible governments, operating in accordance with the Precautionary Principle, will not sit and wait for the threat to materialize, but will act-hether through regulation or various market incentives-to thwart it. Despite the urgency of tackling environmental challenges, current property laws do not provide governments with instruments to estimate the costs and distributive consequences of their actions in advance. Therefore, current property laws adversely affect the willingness of governments to address environmental challenges and the public legitimacy of environmental regulation. This Article proposes an innovative model for governments to address environmental challenges, which includes identifying the unique characteristics of environmental regulations. Environmental regulation is characterized by urgency, absence of scientific certainty, irreversibility, and sometimes cross-border damage. When examined through the main justifications for compensation-efficiency and fairnes-these characteristics enable decision-makers to formulate a clear policy in cases where environmental regulation harms private property. Specifically, the balance between these characteristics of environmental regulation allows decision-makers to know in advance the costs of regulation and the distributive implications of its implementation. This information enables governments to select the appropriate governmental power to exercise in response to any threat and the extent of their liability to compensate injured property owners. The ability of decision-makers to know in advance the economic and social costs of environmental regulation increases the effectiveness and fairness of government action. This knowledge strengthens the ability of governments to deal with growing environmental threats.
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