Latest news with #environmentallaws
The Guardian
2 days ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Labor must protect environment while rewriting laws ‘written to facilitate development', Larissa Waters says
Greens leader Larissa Waters warns Labor's rewrite of national environmental laws will not be credible if the government uses its planned 18-month timeline to continue to approve new coal and gas projects or allow continued habitat destruction. Labor's proposal to create a federal environment protection agency collapsed in the final months of the last parliament. A deal with the Greens was being negotiated by the then environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, but Anthony Albanese pushed the changes off the agenda, fearing an electoral backlash in Western Australia. The newly appointed minister, Murray Watt, says Labor's 3 May victory gives the government a 'very clear mandate' to pass the so-called nature positive laws, which he says should be finalised and passed by parliament within 18 months. That progress will require support from the Greens, which hold the sole balance of power in the Senate. Sign up for Guardian Australia's breaking news email But Waters said Labor needed to do a 'proper job' in redesigning the Howard-era rules and to ensure they were not pushed down the political agenda ahead of the next election. 'They were always written to facilitate development and not to protect the environment. I say that in all honesty,' Waters said. 'What they are now very clearly weak on is meeting the challenges that we're facing. 'They don't have any reference to climate in them. Now that's just ridiculous, to have environmental laws that don't require explicit consideration of the climate.' Waters called for Labor to stop approvals for new mines, describing the post-election extension of Woodside's huge North West Shelf development out to 2070 as 'a massive, dirty gas bomb'. 'They do need a drastic rewrite. With the 18-month delay that the minister has now said, I take two messages out of that. 'Because I'm an optimist … maybe they can now take the time to do a proper job. 'But the other message I take is that this is not a priority for them. And I'm also worried that in that 18-month delay, that so much destruction will just continue. Things will just get ticked off while they're reviewing the laws – how convenient – and it's a smokescreen to just continue on business as usual.' The Queensland senator, who replaced former Greens leader Adam Bandt, made the comments in an interview for Guardian Australia's Australian Politics podcast, released on Friday. The National Farmers' Federation (NFF) has been lobbying the Greens on Labor's plans to make some superannuation tax concessions less generous for account holders with balances above $3m. Sign up to Breaking News Australia Get the most important news as it breaks after newsletter promotion The treasurer, Jim Chalmers, says the government is pressing on with the delayed changes and is expected to negotiate with Greens' treasury spokesperson, Nick McKim. The NFF chief executive, Troy Williams, recently wrote to Waters warning the proposal risks serious unintended consequences for family farming businesses, which often rely on superannuation for intergenerational succession planning. 'We would plead with you to use upcoming negotiations in the Senate to push for sensible changes to this tax to mitigate the unintended consequences for family-owned farms,' Williams said in a letter provided to Guardian Australia. 'This could include grandfathering existing arrangements, excluding agricultural land from valuations, taxing gains on realisation, and of course indexation.' The Greens have promised constructive negotiations and expressed concern retirement savings accounts are being used as vehicles for wealth accumulation. Waters told Guardian Australia the party would consider Labor's final proposal carefully. 'We will support tax changes that make the tax system fairer and I will be having those discussions with Mr Chalmers as the weeks roll on,' she said. 'I think we'll keep those discussions private.'
Reuters
16-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Sustainable Switch Climate Focus: Climate rule rollbacks in US and EU
This is an excerpt of the Sustainable Switch Climate Focus newsletter, where we make sense of companies and governments grappling with climate change on Fridays. To receive the full newsletter in your inbox for free sign up here. Hello! Climate law rollbacks in the United States and the European Union are in focus today as the Trump administration is planning to phase out its emergency management agency, while the EU is facing pressure from countries over its corporate, sustainability and methane emissions laws. President Donald Trump said he planned to start "phasing out" the Federal Emergency Management Agency after the hurricane season and that states would receive less federal aid to respond to natural disasters. "We're going to give out less money," he said. He also said he planned to distribute disaster relief funds directly from the president's office. In keeping with the Trump administration's broader efforts to unwind environmental laws, three sources that spoke to Reuters said that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is planning to roll back Biden-administration rules meant to curb carbon dioxide, mercury and other air pollutant emissions from power plants, following through on a promise the agency made in March. It's not just the Trump administration rolling back climate laws, as a Swedish centre-right lawmaker Jörgen Warborn has proposed that the EU should further slash the number of companies subject to its environmental and corporate sustainability rules. The European Commission proposed a "simplification omnibus" in February that it said would help European firms compete with foreign rivals by cutting back on sustainability reporting rules and obligations intended to root out abuses in their supply chains. But the walk-back on environment, social and corporate rules has met resistance from some investors and campaigners, who have warned it weakens corporate accountability and hurts the bloc's ability to attract more investments towards meeting climate goals. Additionally, European Union countries are demanding that Brussels simplify the EU's methane emissions law, according to a document seen by Reuters. From this year, the EU requires importers of oil and gas to monitor and report the methane emissions – the second-biggest cause of climate change after CO2 emissions. Draft conclusions from a meeting of EU countries' energy ministers showed governments are preparing to ask the Commission to add the methane law to its "simplification" drive to cut bureaucracy for companies. WHAT TO WATCH With more than 600 dead pythons under her belt, Amy Siewe - known as the 'Python Huntress' - is one of a handful of women among hundreds of men hunting the invasive Burmese python in Florida's Everglades wetland ecosystem. Click here for the full Reuters video. CLIMATE LENS China's access to fresh stockpiles of minerals like dysprosium and terbium has been throttled recently after a major mining belt in Myanmar's north was taken over by an armed group battling the Southeast Asian country's junta, which Beijing supports. Now, in the hillsides of Shan state in eastern Myanmar, Chinese miners are opening new deposits for extraction, according to two of the sources, both of whom work at one of the mines. Click here for the full Reuters exclusive report. Number of the Week - $80 billion The amount that Indonesia has invited foreign investors to put in for building a seawall hundreds of kilometres long to prevent floods along the north coast of its most populous island Java, President Prabowo Subianto said.
ABC News
09-06-2025
- Business
- ABC News
Labor MP Jerome Laxale pushes to force climate considerations into environment laws
The Albanese government is facing pressure from its backbench to move quickly on sweeping changes to environmental laws after a contentious gas project was granted provisional approval. Labor MP Jerome Laxale has said he will lobby the government to ensure that Australia's climate targets are considered when future coal or gas projects seek approval. Almost a fortnight ago Labor provisionally approved Woodside's bid to extend the life of its North West Shelf gas plant through to 2070. The approval is critical for the company's greater aim of developing the Browse gas field, Australia's largest untapped gas resource. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made clear the approval was the only decision available under current environmental laws. "The environment minister had to deal with the North West Shelf project under the existing EPBC Act, that we did try to change in the last election," he said. "It was before the parliament for almost two years." During the last term of parliament, the government shelved plans for a rewrite of environmental laws but did try to establish a new environmental protection agency. An early blueprint outlining the aims of the new laws, the "Nature Positive Plan", indicated that emissions would be a factor in future environmental approvals. The stand-alone EPA legislation didn't pass the Senate after WA Premier Roger Cook lobbied the prime minister against doing a deal with the Greens. The prime minister has made clear the stalled reforms will be a priority in the government's second term. Environment Minister Murray Watt has been tasked with reworking the policy, which he says will seek to both protect the environment and serve the needs of businesses. Mr Laxale, who is a patron of Labor's Environment Action Network, said the new laws must consider Australia's climate ambitions. "We need to make sure that our big emitting projects don't jeopardise our ability to meet our emissions reductions target," he said. "That's the fundamental that I want to try and get into the law." One major project on the approvals horizon is Woodside's Browse project. Applications for both the project itself, and a carbon-capture and storage project alongside it, are both going through the state and federal approvals process. It's unclear if new environmental laws could be passed in time to affect Browse, and if the project would be subject to them should they be implemented. Heavily-emitting projects are already required to comply with Australia's climate targets through the safeguard mechanism. Under the safeguard rules, the North West Shelf project is subject to ever-lowering emissions caps towards net zero by 2050. But if the Browse gas project goes ahead, it would be subject to even tighter rules — needing to be net zero from the day it begins operating. The mechanism only tracks a project's direct emissions created in the process of extracting and processing fuel, meaning emissions from the gas produced and sold by a project like Browse are the responsibility of whoever buys and uses the gas. Woodside's plan to meet that net-zero test for Browse is at least partly through carbon capture and storage. After initially suggesting carbon capture and storage would be unfeasible for Browse, the company is now planning a floating system operated at sea. The Browse gas fields have a relatively high carbon content — as much as 12 per cent of the gas field is carbon dioxide. Woodside suggests the majority of that can be captured and buried, reducing Browse's direct (or "scope one") emissions by 53 million tonnes, or 47 per cent. But carbon capture and storage has a patchy track record in Australia, including some high-profile struggles. Chevron's Gorgon gas project is attempting carbon capture and storage, but as of late last year had captured about a third of the emissions it had promised. A different project, Santos' Moomba plant, has had more success. Greg Bourne, a former oil and gas industry executive who now works with the Climate Council, said he doubts Woodside can make its carbon capture plan work. "One only has to witness how difficult Chevron's Gorgon CCS project has been on land. To do it offshore is not only doubly difficult, it is multiply difficult to do," he said. But others argue carbon capture needs to work for Australia to meet its net zero ambitions. Alex Zapantis from the Global CCS Institute said drawing comparisons between the Gorgon and Browse carbon capture projects was unfair. "There is nothing technologically, fundamentally that prohibits you from re-injecting liquids of any sort, including carbon dioxide, into geological structures deep beneath the seabed," he said. "This is a well-established practice by the oil and gas industry. "And comparing Browse to Gorgon, it's not a valid comparison because the geological structures are completely different. They are different structures, they will have different characteristics." The Albanese government has made clear its desire to see more gas projects approved, and has adopted a "Future Gas Strategy" that sees a role for gas well beyond 2050. Mr Laxale agrees there is an important role for gas in the energy transition — but that role might not last forever. "I'd say we need gas, until we don't," he said.
