When a new Albanese government from Australia put up its hand two years ago in Montreal to host the first-ever Global Nature Positive Summit in 2024, it was a bold and exciting move, full of optimism.
Think of it as a mini rehearsal for hosting a global climate summit, which Australia also is bidding to do with the UN’s COP31 in 2026.
In the intervening time the concept of nature positive – which is aimed at literally turning around humanity’s assault on the natural environment through greater protection, repair, restoration and regeneration – has gained international traction, at least in sustainability inner circles across government, business and community.
It feels like an underlying hope that nature positive can recharge the somewhat stale biodiversity space similar to how electrification has fired up energy efficiency.
But politically, things have turned ugly for the government, with a brutal cost-of-living election campaign already underway, even if the nation may not go to polls until next May.
Fast forward to now and the inaugural summit is running in Sydney, putting international attention on Australia, and providing a showcase opportunity to wind up pressure on the government to lift its game on environmental action.
Late last month Labor’s environment and water minister Tanya Plibersek had the unenviable job of formally approving three major coal mine expansions, and her environmental legislative reform agenda has become bogged down in a messy mix of hostile Greens, a hostile Liberal-National coalition, and a hostile mining industry.
Then today, there she was delivering the keynote address on the opening day of the summit, before arguably the most nature positive audience ever assembled.
Looking somewhat mugged by political reality, it felt like Plibersek was expecting protesters to burst out of the crowd in front of her with angry banners, or people to turn their backs or even walk out. But it was a polite and peaceful mood inside the high-security event, and Plibersek started to smile nervously when she wrung a few gentle claps from the audience.
Her big announcement for the event was a major expansion of Australia’s marine park estate, in remote subAntarctic waters, taking the protected ocean estate to 52 per cent, blowing the 2030 target of 30 per cent out of the proverbial water.
It was a good move in its own right, but off the pace when compared with decades-long extensions to polluting coal exports, which reportedly only drew a very small protest outside the summit venue at Darling Harbour.
More importantly, from a systemic point of view for implementing a nature positive agenda, Plibersek is sticking to her portfolio ambitions to deliver a legislative world-first, telling the audience:
“That’s why I’ve introduced laws into parliament to define what nature positive means for Australia. We’ve defined it as ‘an improvement in the diversity, abundance, resilience, and integrity of ecosystems from a baseline.’
“This will be the first time any government has defined nature positive in legislation.”
With quality and accessible data and information, and commonly agreed metrics, being major themes for the summit, Plibersek was on message there too.
“The legislation also sets up Environment Information Australia. Environment Information Australia will be independent, and it will be their job to report on Australia’s progress on becoming nature positive.
“They’ll provide trusted, public data and reporting about the state of our environment.
“Environment Information Australia will also report on how we’re progressing with the new priority national goals that all Australian governments have agreed as our contribution towards implementing the Global Biodiversity Framework.
“Together with our Australian Bureau of Statistics, they’ll publish natural capital accounts that show the value of the natural assets we rely on: the forests, rangelands, soils, mangroves and seagrass that stock our seas with fish, support our food production and help us build our homes and our towns.
“Where these natural assets are located, whether they’re growing or shrinking in size, and what condition they are in.
“We’ve got an international partnership with the United States and Canada working on natural capital accounting because, like us, they know a strong economy depends on nature.
“As a government, we’re also measuring what matters for our national wellbeing. Alongside our normal economic accounts, our budget papers now report on metrics to evaluate:
- How our threatened species are faring;
- How much land we have protected for conservation; and
- Whether our air is getting cleaner.
“So as well as tracking the health of our economy, Australians can see whether our natural capital and other things that matter for our quality of life, are getting better or worse.”
If all this comes to pass before federal parliament rises for the year, and possibly for the last time under this government, it will represent progress. The old State of the Environment reporting process, which fell into the doldrums under previous coalition governments, is in urgent need of a major update.