Race on for NT environment
CLIMATE and environment top the news this week, with two very important NT Government calls for public comment on a draft NT Environment Protection Bill and a Climate Change Discussion paper.
Affecting all Territorians, but particularly the agriculture, pastoral, mining and energy sectors, the fledgling policy levers arrive as the world’s top climate scientists meet in Korea to assess how humanity is faring against a previously agreed target to cap global warming at 1.5C.
Heartbeat will examine both government documents in some detail over coming weeks beginning today, so settle in.
ARE WE THERE YET?
PRELIMINARY findings out of Korea can be used by Territorians as a yardstick to measure their government’s progress on the environment and climate, but it is important to have context.
On October 1, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) opened talks to consider a special report on the likely impacts of global warming of 1.5C, previously an agreed target under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Warming of 1C is already upon us, says the IPCC, with human activity the dominant cause of a rise in average temperatures globally of 0.17C per decade since the 1950s.
The message from the panel discussions and a leaked early draft of the report is that the amount of effort required to keep warming below 1.5C is now too great unless drastic measures are taken, including much deeper cuts to fossil fuel pollution.
As stated in the leaked report: “there is a very high risk that under current emission trajectories and current national pledges global warming will exceed [1.5C] above pre-industrial levels”.
To halt warming now would require mammoth effort in three areas, says the report, first, to lower energy demand in buildings, industry and transport, and demand for agricultural products.
Second, lower emissions from energy supply, land use and agriculture, through say, low carbon technologies.
Third, remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
It is only in such grim light that the worth of proposed environmental policy tools emerging from the NT Government might be examined.
PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT
THE first NT reform is its draft Environment Protection Bill and draft environment protection Regulations, released for eight weeks of public comment.
The call is part of a long overdue government overhaul of environmental regulations in the Territory planned in two broad stages.
The first stage concerns the way we assess environmental impacts, and to introduce a veto environmental approval by the Minister for Environment and Natural Resources.
Stage two aims to transform the existing NT Waste Management and Pollution Control Act into an Environment Protection Act and grant it provision to regulate mining.
Both stages promote what the government is calling “ecologically sustainable development” in the Territory.
Underlying the proposed bill is a new process of environmental assessment with the onus on any development proponent to minimise environmental impacts and to self-refer their project to the NT Environmental Protection Authority (NTEPA).
As a check on this, the NTEPA will also have the power to “call in a referral” on projects that have potential for significant impacts, and to issue a stop-work order while the project is considered.
Once a project is referred, several avenues are open, including no assessment required, assessment by supplementary report, assessment by Environmental Impact Statement, or an inquiry. Any EIS is prepared by NTEPA, which makes recommendations to the Minister who then gets a final yes or no on the project at the end of the process.
Charles Darwin University doctoral student Jane Munday, who is researching better models of social impact assessment, acknowledges “a comprehensive approach to legislative and regulatory reform within Government over the past two years”.
But Ms Munday also expresses concern that impacts on people are insufficiently addressed in the reforms and that much of what is described as ‘consultation’ is nothing more than ‘telling’ or seeking comment.
Indeed, much of what has gone awry in Territory planning in recent times can be traced back to a lack of early consultation.
And when Territorians have good reasons based on past experience to trust neither companies nor regulators, finding a way forward is not easy.
ADAPTING TO CLIMATE CHANGE
The second matter of importance this week is a draft Discussion Paper on Climate Change, which acknowledges that the issue of global warming is already impacting the Territory.
A March report by the Australia Institute, for instance, notes the number of days over 35C in Darwin has increased from 5.6 per year to 22.2, and could rise to 132 days by 2030.
Such change in familiar weather patterns will affect every sphere of life and endeavour in the Territory.
The Discussion Paper outlines the NT Government’s proposed climate change strategy and invites the public to help manage greenhouse emissions and come up with ideas to mitigate against and adapt to climate change.
While there is a great deal of good background and context on climate change in the report, there is little meat where it matters.
The paper fails to nominate a target for net NT emissions, for example, instead asking the public to suggest one in an associated survey.
And the paper’s target of 50 per cent renewable energy generation by 2030 is not nearly enough given what is emerging from Korea this week (which should come as no surprise).
Moreover, the report is not crystal clear on what it means by “renewables”, seemingly mistaking gas for a renewable.
Gas is a fossil fuel, albeit one lower in carbon than coal.
The Territory’s recently renewed commitment to broad scale gas development (and the controversial fracking process) will retard momentum toward developing true renewables, yet, confusingly, the report also calls for greater support of renewables.
As Jimmy Cocking, CEO of the Arid Lands Environment Centre, notes in a media release: “Whilst there are good opportunities for action identified in the discussion paper, ultimately the pursuit of a gas economy will undermine all other action”.
Territorians can have their say on the draft Environment Protection Bill and Regulations online at www.denr.nt.gov.au or by emailing comments to environment.policy@nt.gov.au before December 3, 2018.
And on the Climate Change Discussion Paper by completing a survey before November 30 available at www.haveyoursay.nt.gov.au/ climatechange and by emailing or mailing to the addresses shown.