Some important laws about nature are currently working their way through the legislative process in Australia.
The Senate Standing Committees on Environment and Communications are currently reviewing several important Bills linked to Australia’s attempt to achieve Nature Positive outcomes.
IDEEA Group is keeping a keen eye on the progress of the Nature Positive (Environment Information Australia) Bill 2024. This Bill includes key references to ‘environmental economic accounts.’
We believe that, in relation to environmental economic accounts, the Bill is lacking:
- a clear purpose and scope
- minimum inclusions around fundamental elements of a set of environmental economic accounts, including – at minimum – reference to extent, condition, services and benefits of our ecosystems
- directions for repeating the accounts on a regular basis so that we can see progress against a baseline
- publication of the accounts by a certain time each year.
IDEEA Group’s position is that the legislation must align with the UN System of Environmental-Economic Accounting (SEEA), where the key purpose of environmental economic accounts is defined as providing ‘a structured approach to assessing the dependence and impacts of economic and human activity on the environment.’ This will provide essential context to assess the usefulness of the accounts for the Australian community over time.
You can read our submission here.
The Digest of the Bills is a helpful summary of the proposed legislation, the background to its development and its reception in the community.