The latest attempt to rewrite federal environmental protection laws won\u2019t be \u201ccredible\u201d unless it forces decision-makers to consider climate change when assessing projects, advocates have warned, as consultation on the changes begins.<\/p>\n
Select environment groups, miners, business and farming chiefs joined the new environment minister, Murray Watt, for a roundtable in Canberra on Thursday.<\/p>\n
The Climate Council chief executive, Amanda McKenzie, said the laws would remain \u201cbroken\u201d without some mechanism to account for climate impacts, which she described as the \u201cbiggest concern for Australia\u2019s environment\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not good enough for the Australian government to push climate change out of the frame,\u201d McKenzie said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the biggest impact on the Australian environment, and the law simply won\u2019t be credible if it does not consider the biggest impact on the Australian environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
While not ruling it out, Watt again played down the idea, as he insisted emissions from heavy polluting projects were already managed in other ways.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy argument is that there are a range of mechanisms already in place, both domestically and internationally, to manage the climate impacts of developments,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recognise there are groups who still want us to go further, there are groups who don\u2019t want us to go further, and we\u2019ll be listening to that feedback on the way through.\u201d<\/p>\n
The issue of inserting climate into federal nature laws shapes as a major challenge for Watt as attempts to win broad support for a long-awaited overhaul of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation<\/a> (EPBC) Act.<\/p>\n Five years after Graeme Samuel\u2019s review of the EPBC Act, stakeholders from across the board are generally optimistic that changes to the John Howard-era laws can finally be enacted.<\/p>\n Labor\u2019s proposal to create a federal environment protection agency collapsed in the final months of the last parliament after Anthony Albanese pushed it off the agenda amid concerns about a pre-election backlash in Western Australia.<\/p>\n Speaking after Thursday\u2019s roundtable meeting, Watt said Labor\u2019s thumping federal election win created a \u201cvery clear mandate\u201d to establish the EPA 2.0 and fix the nature laws.<\/p>\n The new minister wants to push changes through federal parliament within 18 months, likely as one package of laws rather than in multiple stages as his predecessor Tanya Plibersek attempted to do.<\/p>\n Watt said there was support among the invited stakeholders on five broad principles: national environmental standards, streamlined approvals, regional planning, a more \u201crobust\u201d offsets regime and better data on environmental impacts.<\/p>\n However, Watt acknowledged disagreements between industry and environmentalist in other areas, including the powers of the EPA and the issue of adding climate to nature laws.<\/p>\n The Greens and climate activists have long advocated for a \u201cclimate trigger\u201d \u2013 a mechanism to account for a project\u2019s pollution in environmental assessments \u2013 as a vehicle to stop new fossil fuel projects.<\/p>\n In 2005, Albanese himself<\/a> \u2013 then a shadow minister fighting the Howard government \u2013 said \u201cthe glaring gap in matters of national environmental significance is climate change\u201d.<\/p>\n skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n Sign up to Clear Air Australia<\/p>\n Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n The now prime minister has long since changed his tune, firmly rejecting the idea after the Greens pushed it during negotiations with Plibersek in the previous term.<\/p>\n