Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s proposed changes to Australia’s national environment act will significantly reduce judicial oversight on environmental decisions. Here’s why that matters.
Natural capital is a hot topic that proponents have jumped onto, believing it is the future of sustainable development. But this concept is based on fundamental fallacies.
Used tyres pose a serious environmental challenge. So far, traditional recycling methods have proved insufficient to solve the problem. New, eco-friendy alternatives are now being explored.
Since the 1960s, environmentalism in Australia has largely focused on defending “wilderness”. However, protected areas in themselves are not stemming the destruction of biodiversity.
There’s a wider trend towards linking the energy and climate portfolios, and not before time – the race is on towards a low-carbon economy, and joined-up policy gets faster results.
Not only do healthy, well-maintained trees provide shade and benefit the ecosystem, they can have a meaningful social impact: people in newly greened neighbourhoods start to look out for each other.
The impact of small businesses on the environment has largely been ignored, but getting them to implement environmental management systems won’t be easy. This is because of their culture of resisting red tape and the way they operate.