Canberra: Australia is set to enact its most sweeping environmental-law reforms in decades, following a last-minute agreement between the ruling government and the opposition Greens. The newly revised legislation, long in gestation, seeks to modernize the outdated framework under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (EPBC Act), replacing it with stronger safeguards and a streamlined, more transparent regulatory system.
At the heart of the reforms is the establishment of a national, independent National Environment Protection Agency (NEPA), mandated to enforce consistent environmental standards across the Commonwealth. These new standards will cover critical issues from habitat protection to biodiversity conservation and apply uniformly to all developments, including native-forest logging and high-risk land clearing previously exempt under regional forest agreements.
Under the overhaul, developers will be required to publicly disclose projected greenhouse-gas emissions for major projects and outline credible mitigation plans. Meanwhile, tougher penalties and environment-protection orders will come into force to deter major breaches. The reforms also simplify environmental approvals by replacing multiple assessment pathways with a streamlined process intended to accelerate projects in national-priority areas such as housing, renewable energy and critical-minerals development.
Despite these gains, the reforms stop short of adopting a dedicated “climate trigger” a mechanism long demanded by environmentalists that would automatically block coal and gas projects exceeding certain emission thresholds. For now, fossil-fuel developments will need to comply with existing safeguards but will not face the most stringent new measures.
To ease the transition for industries such as forestry, the government has announced a A$300 million fund to support forest-sector workers as logging regulations tighten. But the shift has not come without controversy: logging, mining and some agricultural stakeholders warn that compliance costs, stricter scrutiny and potential project delays could hurt jobs and investment.
With parliamentary approval likely this week, the reforms promise a new era in Australia’s environmental governance one that balances nature conservation with economic development. Yet critics caution that without stronger climate safeguards and robust enforcement, the changes may still fall short in addressing the intensifying biodiversity and climate crisis facing the continent.