The Australian government has passed its Nature Repair Market legislation in the Senate, paving the way for a domestic biodiversity credit market after it announced it will update the so called ‘water trigger’ assessment on unconventional gas projects to appease the Greens party.

The bill was passed with amendments from independent Senator David Pocock and the Greens – which successfully passed an amendment to remove the term “market” in all instances of the legislation.

Despite that, legislating the bill means Australia now will set up a traded market for biodiversity credits, although many specifics are yet to be determined.

Amendments added by Pocock said the government must create an investment strategy for biodiversity conservation programmes and implement the recommendations of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).

The amendment also said the government must undertake a review of the governance of the NRM and whether the responsibility of the market should be moved from the Clean Energy Regulator to Environment Protection Australia (EPA), once it has been established.

To secure the bill’s passage the government said it would seek to update the ‘water trigger’ so that new unconventional projects would be assessed for their impact on water resources.

A post on social media platform X by Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young Tuesday said the government had agreed to bar biodiversity certificates generated under the scheme for offsetting purposes.

The Greens senator previously said the party would be open to supporting the legislation if offsetting was removed from the scheme.

WWF Australia released a statement welcoming the bill’s passage through Parliament.

“A market to drive investment into repairing and restoring landscapes is an innovative step at a time when we need to try new things. The amendments to remove offsets, a controversial component from the start, were key to the legislation passing the Senate,” WWF-Australia Chief Conservation Officer Rachel Lowry said.

“Halting biodiversity loss and restoring degraded ecosystems requires stronger regulation of industry and substantial and sustained investment from both government and the private sector.”

WATER TRIGGER

The government said the water trigger will be expanded from its use on coal-seam gas projects to other types of unconventional gas developments such as shale gas.

Most new gas projects will be unaffected by the change as coal seam gas production is already covered by the existing water trigger, and the changes do not apply to conventional gas production, it said.

Existing gas projects that are in production and have already been approved would be unaffected by the update.

“We are making sure our regulations are keeping pace with changes in technology. If we don’t make this change, we could see different rules applied to different types of unconventional gas, with poorer environmental outcomes as a result,” Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek said.

“The Parliament has a chance to pass [the NRM] this year – and to deliver more environmental protection in nine days than the previous government achieved in nine years.”

CREDIBILITY

The bill was passed after the government successfully moved a motion to publish a cross-party committee report on the legislation some five months ahead of schedule.

The committee’s majority report on the bill was accompanied by two dissenting reports by the Greens and the Coalition, both of which condemned the government for the legislation itself, and for providing little time for committee members to meaningfully contribute to the report’s findings.

“The Coalition objects both to the content of the majority report and the attempts that have been made to stop us from responding in any meaningful way to it,” the Coalition’s report said.

“It has continually tried to put the cart before the horse.”

The Greens’ report said “to give any credibility to a potential biodiversity accreditation scheme, the use of offsets must be explicitly excluded”.

“Further, to actively work to achieving these goals would require a clear investment strategy that indicates government biodiversity protection and restoration priorities.”

Chief concerns raised by both parties and stakeholders were relating to the market allowing biodiversity certificates to be used for offsetting purposes, which appears now to have been dealt with, and the fact the bill was being passed ahead of broader environmental reforms.

However, observers have previously warned that even if the government removed offsetting from the scheme, passing the legislation could create risks, given that they could simply enable offsetting as part of the government’s broader reforms to the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act.

The majority report said the government was working to introduce a new national environmental standard for restoration actions and contributions as part of the EPBC reforms.

“This new standard is expected to include a requirement that offsets must deliver a ‘net gain’ for impacted protected matters,” the report said.

“Following the passage of this legislation, there will be a lengthy period of design of the methodologies underpinning the nature repair market, which will require public consultation processes to occur.”

However, Plibersek has previously said she hoped the market could be operational as soon as next year. Australia plans to hold a global nature positive summit in Sydney next October.

By Mark Tilly – mark@carbon-pulse.com

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