Budget, Clean Tech, Carbon, EPBC

Federal Clean Technology Investment Program

In March 2013, Climate Change functions of the former Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency (DCCEE) were transferred to the Department of Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education (DIICCSRTE).

One outcome in the Portfolio Budget Statements is continued support of the 2013-14 Budget under the Industry, Innovation, Climate Change, Science, Research and Tertiary Education portfolio  was the decision to retain funding for the Clean Technology Investment Program.

Funding for the program will actually increase from $167m in 2013/14 to $376m in 214/15.  This is one of few winners in the carbon reduction grant programs.

Carbon Price

The Federal Government has significantly reduced its forecasts for the carbon price.  The budget is based onarbon trading commencing in July 2015.  The forecasts for the carbon price have been reduced from $29 in 2015/16 to $12.10.

The fall in revenues from the carbon tax have led to reductions or deferrals:

·       $225.4m will be deferred and $32.3m redirected from the Biodiversity fund

·       $370m will be deferred from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA),

·       $58 million in funding for the Clean Technology Program moved to 2017-18.

·       Carbon capture and storage will be wound up and

·       Coal industry assistance programs have been shelved.

Note that the personal income tax cuts which were to begin in July 2015 to help with the flow on of costs of the carbon to consumers, have been deferred until carbon price estimates reach $25.40. The new estimate for 2015-16 is just $12.10.

ASBG also notes the Coalition has also flagged that its Direct Action Policy requiring $3.5 b is also under threat due to the short fall in tax revenue.  It appears that many of the government funded carbon based programs are in for a tough time, regardless of whoever wins the next election.

EPBC

One of the key strategic priorities for Department of Sustainability, Environment, Water, Population and Communities (DSEWPaC) is: ensuring efficient and effective environmental regulation in cooperation with stakeholders, especially in relation to protecting matters of national environmental significance and improving the delivery of regulatory services under the EPBC Act.

It would appear that DSEWPaC will continue to administer the EPBC Act in 2013–14, rather than devolve all these responsibilities to State Governments.

DSEWPaC recently announced  proposed amendments to the EPBC Act undertake environmental assessment and approval for coal seam gas and large coal mining developments that are likely to have a significant impact on water resources.

The Budget provides $38 million to implement environmental law reforms: streamlining legislation and leading to better environmental outcomes and stakeholder cooperation.  This appears to follow on with the COAG agreements to reduce overlap between Federal and State Governments. 

Vegetation Clearing and Enviro Offsets

Vegetation Clearing Legislation

Twenty-seven academics from universities across Queensland with expertise in biodiversity conservation and sustainable development are urging Premier Campbell Newman to reconsider proposed changes to the Vegetation Management Act.

The scientists are expressing grave concerns about the future impacts of proposed changes to Queensland’s Vegetation Management Act and the Water Act. There are warnings of devastating habitat and species loss if changes to the state’s land clearing laws go ahead.

The concerned scientists believe amendments will include allowing a new category of broadscale native vegetation clearing and remove the protections which previously prevented clearing of mature regrowth of threatened plant communities and of vegetation along many watercourses.

However, Minister Cripps claims the package of reforms will maintain key environmental protections such as buffer zones along creeks and rivers in sensitive reef areas.

The concerns of the Scientists about the changes to Vegetation Management include:

·       Land clearing is the greatest current threat to Australia’s biodiversity,

·       Vegetation loss is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions,

·       degradation and reduced water quality in waterways and estuaries,

·       dryland salinity and

·       lost ecosystems.

The changes the Qld Government are proposing to make to vegetation management laws are intended to support growth in agricultural production, provide jobs and boost regional economies. However, restoration of lost ecosystems can cost more than $20,000 per hectare. Avoiding the loss of ecosystems in the first place is far more cost-effective.

Green groups are coming under fire from the Minister for Natural Resources and Mines for opposing these changes.

The World Wide Fund have produced a report that provides the first estimates of environmental values potentially placed at-risk of renewed clearing due to the proposed changes to land clearing legislation in Queensland

Successive Qld Governments in the 1990s to 2009 bought in laws which provided strong protection for bushland. Before the Vegetation Management Act came into effect Qld was experiencing some of the highest rates of clearing in the world – similar to Brazil’s clearing of the Amazon. Once the new laws started to take effect clearing rates declined from a massive 750,000ha a year before laws were introduced in 1999 to 77,590ha in 2009-10.

An amendment bill was introduced into parliament in March and referred to the parliamentary committee for State Development, Infrastructure and Industry, which is due to report back on this week.

Environmental Offset Policy Review

Environmental offsets were originally established to replace environmental values lost through development.  At the moment, the Qld Government has five Environmental Offset Policies:

·       Qld Government Environmental Offsets Policy (administered by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection –offsets@ehp.qld.gov.au)

·       Qld Biodiversity Offset Policy (administered by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection –offsets@ehp.qld.gov.au)

·       Offset for Net Gain of Koala Habitat in South East Qld Policy (administered by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection - seqkoala@ehp.qld.gov.au)

·       Policy for Vegetation Management Offsets (administered by Department of Natural Resources and Mines –vmenquireis@dnrm.qld.gov.au)

·       Marine Fish Habitat Offset Policy (administered by Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)

General information about offsets and the policies can still be found on the EHP website, however there is currently a review of the department’s web material, which has resulted in some documents being unavailable at this time.

In relation to the future of Qld’s offset policies, the Qld Government committed, through the Six Month Action Plan July to December 2012, to review the overarching framework for the Biodiversity Offsets Policy. The review will create a single policy that incorporates requirements of all five existing Qld Government offset policies.

The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection is leading this review.

The single policy will address all Qld Government offset requirements and could be adopted as the foundation for local government offset policies if desired by councils.

The review seeks to reduce costs for government and industry; promote strategic biodiversity outcomes; and provide for shelf ready products that enable rapid approvals for projects.

This review is not linked to the review of assessment requirements or triggers under legislation. These are being undertaken separately to development of this policy.

However, where there is a State assessment requirement to avoid, mitigate and offset impacts – the single State Government Environmental Offset Policy will provide how this offset is to be achieved.

Until this review is completed, all current offset policies remain in effect.

A letter to the Enviro Minister on Enviro Offsets

Hon Andrew Powell

Minister for Environment and Heritage Protection

Dear Mr Powell,

I was reading an article on Biodiversity offsets, which prompted me to have a quick look at the EHP website for the Queensland Government Environmental Offsets Policy.

I noted that a lot of the content on the website is no longer available.

Many of the triggers in legislation appear to be under review or being amended including:

·         Sustainable Planning Act 2009 (PDF)*

·         Environmental Protection Act 1994 (PDF)*

·         Nature Conservation Act 1992 (PDF)*.

I wonder if you are able to provide any insights into what the Qld Government’s current and future policy on Environmental Offsetting will be?

Regards,

Rowan Barber


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In response, an EHP representative wrote:

Good afternoon Rowan.

Thank-you for email.  Apologies for the website – there is currently a review of the department’s web material, which has resulted in some documents being unavailable at this time.

CURRENT

At the moment the Queensland Government has five offset policies:

·         Queensland Government Environmental Offsets Policy (administered by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection –offsets@ehp.qld.gov.au)

·         Queensland Biodiversity Offset Policy (administered by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection –offsets@ehp.qld.gov.au)

·         Offset for Net Gain of Koala Habitat in South East Queensland Policy (administered by Department of Environment and Heritage Protection - seqkoala@ehp.qld.gov.au)

·         Policy for Vegetation Management Offsets (administered by Department of Natural Resources and Mines –vmenquireis@dnrm.qld.gov.au)

·         Marine Fish Habitat Offset Policy (administered by Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries)

General information about offsets and the policies can be found from the below link.

http://www.ehp.qld.gov.au/management/environmental-offsets/environmental-offsets.html

FUTURE

In relation to the future of Queensland’s offset policies, the Queensland Government committed, through the Six Month Action Plan July to December 2012, to review the overarching framework for the Biodiversity Offsets Policy.  The review will create a single policy that incorporates requirements of all five existing Queensland Government offset policies.

The Department of Environment and Heritage Protection is leading this review.

The single policy will address all Queensland Government offset requirements and could be adopted as the foundation for local government offset policies if desired by councils.

The review seeks to reduce costs for government and industry; promote strategic biodiversity outcomes; and provide for shelf ready products that enable rapid approvals for projects.

This review is not linked to the review of assessment requirements or triggers under legislation.  These are being undertaken separately to development of this policy. 

However, where there is a State assessment requirement to avoid, mitigate and offset impacts – the single State Government Environmental Offset Policy will provide how this offset is to be achieved.

Until this review is completed, all current offset policies remain in effect.

Kind regards,

Jane

Guilt Offset

In this week’s blog post, various forms of offsets are discussed. 

It may be useful to consider the parody website which offers offsetting of one's fidelity.

Carbon Offsets

The Australian Government introduced the National Carbon Offset Standard (NCOS) on 1 July 2010. The NCOS provides national consistency and consumer confidence in the voluntary carbon market.

The standard:

·           provides guidance on what is a genuine voluntary carbon emissions offset and

·           sets minimum requirements for calculating, auditing and offsetting the carbon footprint of an organisation, product or event to voluntarily achieve 'carbon neutrality'.

In the lead up to a Federal Election later this year, it is still unclear what the Federal Opposition’s policies are on carbon offsetting and the voluntary carbon market.

Environmental Offsetting

Environmental offsets were established by the former Qld Government to replace environmental values lost through development that supports a rapidly growing economy and population.

In Queensland, environmental offsets were administered under the Queensland Government Environmental Offsets Policy (QGEOP) but it still unclear whether the current Government supports this concept. 

The purpose of the QGEOP was to:

·         provide a foundation of guidelines and principles for the development, operation, monitoring and review of new and existing specific issue offset policies and

·         provide a supporting framework for the management of offsets in Queensland.

Some of the QGEOP appears to have been removed from the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection website.

There are a number of other offset policies under the Qld Government Environmental Offsets Policy which can still be accessed via the environmental offsets section.

Vegetation Offsetting

Vegetation management offsets in Queensland, introduced by the previous Qld Government commenced on 1 July 2008 were administered under the Policy for Vegetation Management Offsets.

Proposed reforms to relax Vegetation Management laws have been referred to the State Development, Infrastructure and Industry parliamentary committee but it is still unclear whether the provisions for Vegetation offsetting will be retained or not.

Many of the policies are no longer available on the Department of Environment and Heritage Protection Website.

Vegetation Management was a statutory policy that formed part of the broader vegetation management framework designed to regulate the clearing of native vegetation throughout the state.

Prior to the last Qld State election, Campbell Newman promised that the LNP would retain the current level of statutory vegetation protection.  The introduction of amendments to Vegetation Management laws seem contrary to this assertion.

Biodiversity Offsetting

Researchers from the National Environmental Research Program's have been considering the effectiveness and the technicalities of biodiversity offsetting rather than the moral and philosophical issues.

The former Queensland Government had developed the Queensland Biodiversity Offset Policy with the intent to increase the long-term viability of the state’s biodiversity where residual impacts from development on an area possessing state significant biodiversity values cannot be avoided or minimised.

The policy is a specific-issues offset policy under the Queensland Government Environmental Offsets Policy (QGEOP) previously mentioned.

Under the Biodiversity Offset Policy, there were certain development activities that might trigger the requirement for a biodiversity offset.

Many of these triggers are now being removed or reviewed.

• The Sustainable Planning Act 2009  is being simplified.
• Development in the coastal zone under the Coastal Protection and Management Act 1995,
• Environmentally relevant activities have been reviewed under Green Tape Reduction,
• The State Planning Policy 2/11 (SPP 2/11) is under review and a temporary Planning Protection Policy is currently in place.

The China First Coal Project is entering the last stages of review for its proposed coal mine in Queensland’s Bimblebox Nature Refuge. The proposal suggests protecting about two hectares of remnant bush for every one hectare of the nature refuge that is affected by the mine.

It remains to be seen if the Qld Government will just revoke the protected status of the Bimblebox Nature Reserve or whether biodiversity offsets will be required. 

Questions still remain as to whether or not biodiversity offsetting could balance out the impact developments have on the environment.  These questions may be moot, if the Qld Government removes the requirements for biodiversity offsets.

Land clearing

Vegetation Management

The Qld Government has announced proposed reforms to state vegetation management laws which are intended to pave the way for development of new agricultural areas in Qld’s Gulf Country but has implications across the state for agriculture, mining and property development.

In 2006, clearing of remnant vegetation to create pastures for agriculture was the principal activity that was stopped and which previously accounted for the vast majority of land clearing.

The high rates of land clearing and habitat fragmentation prior to 2006 in Australia, particularly in Qld, have been identified in State of the Environment reports as the single most significant threat to terrestrial biodiversity in Australia and Qld. For example, the State of the Environment Queensland 1999 reported:

The factor contributing most to the loss of biodiversity in Queensland has been and continues to be the destruction of native habitat by broadscale land clearing. Immediate effects on biodiversity include the removal or killing of species, the most obvious being plants, and the rapid reduction in habitat for other species. Habitat loss is a major factor in loss of woodland bird diversity in Australia: it has been estimated that 1000–2000 birds die for every 100 ha of native bushland cleared

Broadscale land clearing not only reduces the extent and diversity of natural ecosystems but also fragments them into remnant patches that, in many cases, are too small and too isolated to maintain viable populations of species.

In 2012, AgForce reinstated the AgForce Vegetation Management Committee to gather information on the limitations of the current Vegetation Management Act 1999.  The Committee has been assisting the Qld Government understand what AgForce considers to be the key failings of the Act.

The Agforce Committee has overseen a consultation process with their members across the state to provide feedback on the legislation, its regulation and associated codes and has suggested changes to the legislation.

Now amendments are proposed in the Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill 2013 will allow land clearing activities to support the development of high value agriculture in areas with appropriate land and climate characteristics.

The clearing of native vegetation in Queensland is currently regulated by the Vegetation Management Act 1999. The Act currently sets down the rules and regulations that guide what clearing can be done, and how it must be done to meet the requirements of the law.

The act currently regulates clearing of remnant vegetation on a regional ecosystem and remnant map on freehold and Indigenous land and State tenures. Regulated regrowth vegetation on freehold and Indigenous land and leasehold land for agriculture and grazing is also protected. On some other State tenures native woody regrowth may also be protected.  The Qld Government proposes to introduce self-assessable codes for routine vegetation management activities such as weed and pest management, fodder harvesting and thinning.

Clearing for some activities are already exempt. These include most routine activities like fence lines, yards, firebreaks and burning off.

Clearing remnant vegetation on a regional ecosystem or remnant map, if not exempt, can currently only be done under a permit. Landholders wanting a permit must apply to the department of Natural Resources and Mines. The department assesses applications against regional vegetation management codes. These codes are also used to assess applications to clear native woody regrowth on State tenures other than leasehold land for agriculture and grazing.

Permit are not required to clear regulated regrowth. However, landholders currently need to notify the department that they intend to clear and any clearing must comply with the regrowth vegetation code.  The proposed amendments will remove these requirements.

The Bill proposes to remove regulations regarding regrowth control on freehold and indigenous land, these regulations will still apply to leasehold land and in reef watercourses.

The Qld Government proposes to detect inappropriate vegetation management practices that show no regard for the environment through satellite monitoring.

Key reforms proposed under the Vegetation Management Framework Amendment Bill 2013 include:

· The introduction of new clearing purposes under the Act for high-value agriculture and environmental works (such as land rehabilitation)

· The removal of regrowth regulations on freehold and indigenous land, but the retention of controls on regrowth control on leasehold land and in reef watercourses

· New provisions to allow for the creation of self-assessable codes for routine management activities such as weed and pest management, fodder harvesting and thinning

· The creation of simplified statewide vegetation maps to clearly define areas where regulations will apply

· The removal of the guide to sentencing under the existing Vegetation Management Act to ensure more consistent and equitable penalties in cases of inappropriate clearing

These proposed reforms will now be referred to the State Development, Infrastructure and Industry parliamentary committee for thorough examination and full public consultation.  More information on the amendments and how to make submissions to the Parliamentary Committee is available under Vegetation Management at: www.dnrm.qld.gov.au/home.

EPBC Act approval responsibilities

This week a senate committee confirmed the Federal Department of Environment was backing away from handing over responsibilities for biodiversity approvals to the Sates.

However, the committee did not support a Greens bill to prevent national environment laws from being handed over to the states.

The committee notes the Commonwealth acknowledged that 'significant challenges emerged in developing approval bilateral agreements that provide consistency for business and assurance to the community that high standards will be made and maintained' and said it 'will introduce legislative reforms to progress its response to the Hawke review of the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 to further streamline and strengthen environmental regulation'.  

The opposition still supports delegation of environmental powers to the States.

The committee report, the Coalition’s additional comments and the Greens dissenting report are available here.

in defense of the Environment

As you may have seen in the news today, the Environment Defenders Office was told yesterday that the State government has ceased all State funding to EDO Qld and EDO-NQ without notice on 30 June 2012.

This is half of their recurrent funding. 

EDO have sought an urgent meeting with the State Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Jarrod Bleijie, but are waiting for his response.

The withdrawal of funding guts their ability to help landholders, individuals and community groups understand and act on their legal rights to protect the environment.  

Without the Environment Defenders Office there is no legal support available for those that want to protect the environment in the public interest.

Their community litigants handbook will cease publication. 

If you have ever received their assistance or value the essential services they provide, now is the time they need your support to ask that their funding be restored.

Three things you can do to help the EDO today:

·         contact Attorney-General and Minister for Justice, Jarrod Bleijie, attorney@ministerial.qld.gov.au and politely tell him about the essential role EDO plays in helping the community understand and access their legal rights;

·         donate to EDO Qld to at least allow them to deliver our Handbook guide to Mining & Coal Seam Gas or continue their general services, including answering the 50+ people on their waiting list for assistance to protect the environment; and

·         spread the word by commenting on media reports and telling your friends through Facebook, Twitter and your local networks.

For more information contact

Bronwyn BellOffice Manager

30 Hardgrave Rd WEST END, QLD 4101tel +61 7 3211 4466  fax +61 7 3211 4655
edoqld@edo.org.au   www.edo.org.au/edoqld