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Ontario’s Working for Workers Five Act receives royal assent
On October 28, Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received royal assent.
Global | Publication | October 2024
The world’s first Global Nature Positive Summit was held in Sydney, Australia from 8 to 10 October 2024. Norton Rose Fulbright was fortunate to have a number of its lawyers attend the Summit and this article sets out our key takeaways from the two days.
International environmental leaders and decision-makers (predominantly from Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific region) across various sectors gathered at the Summit to discuss the need for increased global investment into nature repair and the prevention of biodiversity loss.
The Summit was announced by the Australian Government at the 2022 United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (COP15), where the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (Framework) was established to accelerate collective action on nature investment (see our previous article on the Framework here).
The key mission of the Framework is to “take urgent action to halt and reverse biodiversity loss to put nature on a path to recovery for the benefit of people and planet by conserving and sustainably using biodiversity and by ensuring the fair and equitable sharing of benefits from the use of genetic resources, while providing the necessary means of implementation”1 (our emphasis).
Included in the Framework’s 23 global targets to be achieved by 2030 is the goal of 30% conservation of land, ocean, and inland waters, and 30% restoration of degraded ecosystems.2 The Framework’s targets will require significant economic investment and a diverse range of stakeholder input, with action needed from both government and the private sector.
The Summit aimed to foster dialogue and knowledge sharing on economic best practices to promote investment in nature and build momentum to meet the Framework’s ambitious targets. A particular focus was also placed on championing Indigenous leadership in driving economic growth and sustainability.
On a broader note, the Summit also re-focused global attention on the goal of being ‘nature positive’. Although this term has not been formally defined internationally, it is understood to refer to the Framework’s goal to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030 on a 2020 baseline and achieve full recovery by 2050.
In Australia, a proposed definition of ‘nature positive’ has been inserted in the draft Nature Positive (Environment Information Australia) Bill 2024 (Cth) as “an improvement in the diversity, abundance, resilience and integrity of ecosystems from a baseline.” In determining whether nature positive is being achieved, regard is to be had to whether there has been an improvement in the diversity, abundance and resilience of species that form part of ecosystems. For more information on the Nature Positive Laws see our previous article.
The Summit made it clear that to achieve the Framework goals, action must be taken urgently by both businesses and government. Furthermore, we noted the following recurring themes from the Summit discussions:
At the Summit, Minister for the Environment, Tanya Plibersek made the following announcements:
While these announcements are a positive indicator of Australia’s commitment to biodiversity and protecting nature, the key to ensuring these steps result in positive outcomes will be through further steps taken to ensure practical measures are in place to protect the relevant areas.
The 2024 United Nations Convention of Biological Diversity (COP 16) will be held in Cali, Colombia from 21 October to 1 November 2024. As noted by the World Wildlife Fund, expectations for COP16 are high - “with biodiversity loss showing no signs of abatement, and suffocating heat waves, droughts and floods gripping communities around the world, COP16 must serve as a moment to bolster equitable action, foster solutions and increase political backbone to halt and reverse nature loss by 2030.”
The draft Biodiversity Assessment Instrument and the first method for the Nature Repair Market, the Replanting Native Forest and Woodland Ecosystems, are currently open for consultation. This closes on 30 October 2024.
The Biodiversity Assessment Instrument is intended to set out consistent requirements for how methods assess biodiversity and changes in biodiversity, with this information anticipated to be included in the biodiversity register.
Additional methods in development include methods for:
Significant progress is needed for Australia to meet its ‘30% by 2030’ target. A substantial part of this will be via the Australian Government’s proposed staged reforms to the Environment Protection Biodiversity and Conservation Act 1999 (Cth) (EPBC Reforms). We previously discussed these reforms in an article about the Nature Positive Laws introduced to Parliament as a part of the EPBC Reforms here.
The draft legislation establishing the Federal EPA and Environment Information Australia was scheduled to come before the Senate on 10 October 2024, but was ultimately not debated as the Senate ran out of time. The Senate will sit again for two weeks commencing 18 November 2024, with the draft legislation anticipated to be discussed then.
While the EPBC Reforms reflect the urgency needed to prevent biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse, unfortunately the balance of the reforms has been delayed.
The recommendations for reporting on climate related financial disclosures by the Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), ultimately resulted in the introduction of mandatory climate related financial reporting in Australia, which we discussed in our previous article here.
With the introduction of the recommendations from the Task Force for Nature Related Financial Disclosures (TNFD), financial reporting and disclosures related to impacts and dependencies on nature are anticipated to become mandatory in future. Some entities are already delivering integrated financial reports in accordance with the TCFD and TNFD.
Overall, whilst the Summit demonstrated a growing interest in nature positive reforms and emphasised the need to take urgent action, it also exposed how much progress must be made in the near future to meet the ambitious 2030 targets of the Framework.
If you are interested in finding out more about the Summit, the Nature Repair Market or the EPBC Reforms, please contact a member of NRF’s Environment and Planning team.
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On October 28, Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received royal assent.
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