Australia’s federal environmental laws - the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act - are broken.

Shell Oil, one of the biggest climate polluters in the world, finally faces court in December

This is a potential game-changer because if successful, Friends of the Earth Netherlands historic climate case against Shell would rule that the oil corporation must reduce its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 and to zero by 2050. This would have global repercussions that would extend to Shell's investments in Australia.

Community driven environment group Friends of the Earth Australia says Minister Angus Taylor’s “Technology Roadmap” will lead the country towards catastrophic climate impacts.

Between December 2019 and July 2020, Environmental group, Friends of the Earth, carried out 200 koala surveys in the Strzelecki Ranges and Gippsland Region. The surveys hoped to better understand habitat utilisation by koalas in the region. The surveys add to other survey work conducted in the region between 2013-16.

The recent announcement by federal resources minister Keith Pitt that a new 'Australian Radioactive Waste Agency' will be established and located in Adelaide is the latest move by the federal government to impose a national nuclear waste dump in SA.

National and state environment groups have given a cautious welcome to the continuation of long-standing protections against nuclear risks in the current statutory review of the Environmental Protection Biodiversity Conservation (EPBC) Act – Australia’s federal environmental laws. The interim report released today has stated that the Commonwealth should maintain the capacity to intervene in uranium mining and made no recommendation to change existing prohibitions on nuclear activities, including domestic nuclear power.

In a shocking move, a small group of Australian geoengineers have defied an international moratorium on the deployment of geoengineering technologies.

The Victorian government has stepped up its advocacy for offshore wind, with Energy Minister Lily D’Ambrosio telling the federal government to “put ideology aside”, stop delaying and bring offshore wind laws to Parliament.

Friends of the Earth welcome the Minister’s comments, and says legislating for offshore wind is critical to pave the way for the sector, which could be a game changer for climate action and play a key role in post-Covid recovery efforts.

National environment group Friends of the Earth have welcomed the referral of Australia’s first offshore wind farm the Star of the South project to state and federal planning and environment ministers, and says building renewable energy could be key to the post-Covid recovery effort. 

“The Star of the South offshore wind farm would be a game changer for new renewable energy supply and taking action on climate change in Victoria. It will create thousands of jobs and mark the beginning of a whole new sector” said Pat Simons, Friends of the Earth’s renewable energy spokesperson.

In response to the economic impacts of the outbreak of the Coronavirus/ Covid-19, state and federal governments are now announcing rolling, large-scale stimulus packages to keep the economy afloat. These already total billions of dollars and are likely to be ongoing. 

This is both a threat and an opportunity for the future of the economy, the climate and ecosystems at a time of overlapping crises.