Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999

• Federal laws made in 1999 to better protect the environment are failing.
• These shortcomings have prompted a volunteer environment group to mount a legal challenge against federal Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek “to protect our living wonders from coal and gas”.
• Read more:
  Times have changed: why the environment minister is being forced to reconsider climate-related impacts of pending fossil fuel approvals

Australia’s national environmental law

• The primary objective of the EPBC Act is to:
  provide for the protection of the environment, especially those aspects of the environment that are matters of national environmental significance.
• provide for the protection of the environment, especially those aspects of the environment that are matters of national environmental significance.
• However, climate change is not considered directly in the EPBC Act as one of the factors affecting matters of national environmental significance.
• According to the Climate Council report, since 1999, 740 new projects to extract coal, oil and gas have been approved or passed, with 555 of them not having undergone detailed environmental assessment.

Climate risks to Australia

In 2022, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released the most recent comprehensive global assessment of climate change risks. The special fact sheet about climate impacts on natural and human systems in Australia and New Zealand provides a helpful summary of that assessment. It lists nine key risks in Australia associated with climate change. Of these, the top five risks for our living wonders are:
That last one is particularly relevant to the EPBC Act.

A legal challenge is underway

• Last week, the environment council challenged Plibersek’s rejection to reconsider two of the three coal mine expansion projects, both in New South Wales.
• A decision from the judge on this case is pending and should be provided in the next few months.
• A spokesperson for the minister has advised the media they would not comment “as this is a legal matter”.

Protecting our living wonders means fixing Australia’s environment law

• We need a national environment law that genuinely protects our environment by stopping highly polluting projects and enabling ones that can help us rapidly switch to a clean economy instead.
• Read more:
  Australia’s environment law doesn’t protect the environment – an alarming message from the recent duty-quashing climate case

• The Northern Territory government’s plan to turn 100,000 hectares over to large-scale crops such as cotton and its support for onshore gas extraction is threatening the world’s largest intact tropical savanna.
• As wildlife ecologists and conservation scientists, we are deeply concerned about plans announced last month that would intensify land clearing.

Land clearing leaves wildlife homeless

• Land clearing leads to habitat loss, erosion and pollution of waterways.
• Agriculture, including livestock grazing (pastoralism), is by far the greatest driver of land clearing in northern Australia.
• The land subject to clearing approvals in the NT increased by 300% between 2018 and 2021.

Weak laws afford limited protection

• Our national environmental protection law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, relies on self-referral of development activities for assessment.
• This means the potential impacts on threatened species and other natural values supposedly protected by national environmental laws, are never assessed by experts.
• The Pastoral Land Board approves land clearing across pastoral leases (which cover more than 45% of the territory’s land area).
• On one occasion the proponent referred an application to the NT Environment Protection Agency.

Fuelling fires and biodiversity loss

• The push to extract gas from the Beetaloo Basin represents another major threat to the region.
• The export of fracked gas from Beetaloo will be facilitated by the Middle Arm Sustainable Development precinct.

A better future for Australia’s tropical savannas

To protect Australia’s tropical savannas from uncontrolled land clearing and gas extraction, we need:

Avoid repeating past mistakes

• Against a backdrop of climate change, biodiversity decline and extinction crises, any further development of the north must be subject to rigorous risk-assessment and appropriate environmental protections.
• We simply can’t afford to risk repeating mistakes already inflicted on much of southern Australia.
• He is a member of the Australian Government's Threatened Species Scientific Committee, and the Australian Wildlife Conservancy's Scientific Advisory Network.

• This milestone embodies Cambodia's remarkable journey from a war-torn nation to a beacon of environmental progress, amplified by its rapid economic growth.
• This fosters a shared understanding of the challenges and opportunities in preserving Cambodia's environment and natural resources.
• Prime Minister Hun Sen stated, 'Once known for war and genocide, today's Cambodia pioneers environmental protection and climate resilience.
• Cambodia's example inspires countries worldwide to integrate progress with environmental sustainability, forging a peaceful, more inclusive, resilient, and prosperous future for all.

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