NSW environment watchdog to require companies to show how they will hit net zero and then nudge them to improve

NSW authorities say a new climate plan means ‘for the first time in Australia, there will be a comprehensive approach around emissions reduction pathways’. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAP

New South Wales’s environmental watchdog has released what it calls Australia’s “most comprehensive plan” to regulate carbon emissions, requiring firms to show how they will hit net zero by 2050 and nudging them to improve resilience in a warming world.

The Climate Change Policy and Action Plan 2023-26, released on Friday by the Environment Protection Authority, will identify what progress is already under way by companies now covered by pollution licences and encourage them to improve.