As the Albanese government prepared to host what has been billed as a “global nature-positive summit” in Sydney, Australian business and finance leaders issued something of a rallying call. In a joint statement, they urged the country to focus more on the importance of nature protection and restoration, warning the nation’s economy depends on it.
Their statement had few specifics, but the organisations behind it – including the Australian Industry Group, the Australian Institute of Company Directors, the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation led by former Treasury secretary Ken Henry and groups representing accountants, superannuation investors and the insurance industry – said the evidence was clear that nature was degrading at an unprecedented rate globally and that about half of Australia’s GDP depended on its health, either directly or indirectly.
It was a noteworthy intervention, largely because it filled a largely otherwise unoccupied space. It explained why the nature summit, if successful, could be important.
Announced by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, nearly two years ago, the event has struggled to attract international guests or build a significant agenda. This is partly a matter of timing – it is being held less than a fortnight before a major UN summit on biodiversity in Colombia, known as Cop16.
The Australian government had initially hoped the event would highlight its leadership in developing new nature laws. That could still happen as parliament sits next week, but negotiations on legislation to create an environment protection agency stalled last month and a promised broader revamp of national conservation law, which everyone agrees is failing, has been delayed indefinitely.
In lieu of that, the government this week published a “strategy for nature” for 2030. It largely sets out previously announced goals, including that Australia would protect 30% of its land and sea by the end of the decade and have no new extinctions.
Scientists and conservationists pointed out there was little detail explaining how the targets would be achieved or measured. They said it raised doubts about whether Plibersek would have much new to say when she addresses about 1,000 delegates at the start of the two-day nature summit on Tuesday.
The director of the Melbourne Biodiversity Institute and lead councillor with the Biodiversity Council, Prof Brendan Wintle, said the government’s strategy for nature had “a lot of good intent” but leaves major questions unanswered.
“Who is responsible, what do they have to deliver, by when, and how will it be paid for?” he said.
Wintle called on the government to commit to lifting funding for nature protection to 1% of the federal budget – about $7bn this year.
The Australian Conservation Foundation agreed the government’s nature targets could not be met without laws and funding changes to help the recovery of more than 2,000 animals and plants at threat of extinction across the continent.
The foundation’s chief executive, Kelly O’Shanassy, said Labor’s strategy was an incomplete response to the global biodiversity framework that it signed up to at a summit in Montreal two years ago which committed countries to meeting national plans that could halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030.
“Since coming to office in 2022, the Albanese government has talked the talk on nature protection, but we haven’t seen much walking the walk,” she said.
“Instead of delivering new legislation that is up to the job of protecting and conserving Australia’s unique wildlife and natural places, we now have a significantly more modest set of reforms, which are at risk of being further weakened or abandoned altogether.”
Plibersek told Guardian Australia that the government had taken a significant step this week, formally lodging what she called its “ambitious new nature targets” with the UN ahead of the Colombia meeting, as was agreed in Montreal. She said Australia could be proud that it was doing its “fair share and being a good global citizen when it comes to climate change and looking after nature”.
“Nature positive is the new net zero, and the Albanese government and business are leading the world in these early stages,” she said. “By hosting the world’s first global nature positive summit, we’re showing the world how serious we are about putting nature on the path to recovery.”
Not everyone agrees. Major environment groups, some of which have been trying to negotiate with the government over a better outcome, plan to rally and march in Sydney on Saturday to air their frustration.
A major focus of the summit is how to build the private investment that is required to address the decline of nature not just in Australia, but globally. The UN has estimated that would cost US$700bn a year.
Global thinking on how to address this massive shortfall is in its early stages and will be a major focus at Cop16, as well as the shorter Sydney summit.
A report this week by the climate investment and advisory firm Pollination looked at the state of the market in voluntary biodiversity credits, which businesses don’t have to buy but can in order to demonstrate their support for nature.
Pollination examined the 16 leading schemes globally and concluded that the results were encouraging, but also demonstrate just how far there is to go. Up to $1.8m worth of credits have been sold globally and the transactions have protected or restored up to 125,000 hectares of nature.
The report found the majority of biodiversity credit schemes were additional and not designed to create offsets, which have been used to justify nature destruction elsewhere and have been widely criticised by scientists and activists. The main buyers were major corporate companies and the finance sector, mainly motivated by the public relations benefits of being seen to protect nature.
But at the moment there just aren’t enough credit purchases. Scientists have estimated $2bn a year are needed in Australia alone to halt nature destruction and help restore what has been lost.
The Albanese government last year passed legislation for a nature repair market, meant to set up a framework into which businesses can invest. Small problem: the drive for private companies to voluntarily spend up just doesn’t exist yet.
The 11 business, finance, investor and civil society groups that released a statement on Friday were not prescriptive about what the future will look like, but said change must come. They pointed out Australia has a world-leading rate of species extinction and nature underpins Australia’s economic health.
“Like other economies, Australia is grappling with the interdependence of a strong national economy with a healthy natural environment,” they said. “Awareness is rising and will require significant goodwill and broad collaboration to devise workable solutions that support productivity and prosperity.”
