For the first time scientists have put a dollar estimate on what it would cost to repair Australia’s environment.
The Blueprint to Repair Australia’s Landscapes has been developed by the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists and was launched today at the National Press Club in Canberra.
It has taken six years to compile with input from more than 60 expert contributors.
It has found that repairing Australia’s landscapes is not only affordable, it is essential, urgent, achievable and in the national interest.
Addressing the National Press Club, Wentworth Group Members Professor of Environmental Management at the University of Queensland Martine Maron and Professor of Geography at ANU Jamie Pittock, said they understood why many Australians felt daunted by the challenge our degraded environment presents.
“Successive State of the Environment Reports show that many parts of Australia’s environment are in poor and declining condition. We are a world leader in extinction, habitat destruction and environmental degradation, but we don’t have to be,” Professor Maron said.
“We can’t bring back the species we have lost forever, but we can recover our declining species, repair our landscapes, return our rivers and coasts to health and safeguard the productivity of our soils. And we can afford to do it.”
The Blueprint focuses on five of Australia’s major landscape asset groups: soil, native vegetation, threatened species, freshwater and coasts, and recommends a total of 24 repair actions.
The outcome will be to:
– Repair the productive base of agricultural soils by removing constraints which limit agricultural productivity.
– Fix overallocated and fragmented river systems and rehabilitate degraded water catchments.
– Restore native ecosystems to a minimum 30% of their pre-European extent while maintaining and even increasing current agricultural production.
– Avoid most extinctions and ensure the survival of Commonwealth-listed threatened species
– Remediate estuaries and restore coastal biodiversity.
The Blueprint suggests both public and private financing mechanisms will be needed to fund the repair and that the cost would be around $7.3 billion (in 2022$) each year, which equates to 0.3 percent of GDP.
Professor Jamie Pittock told the National Press Club that carbon market revenue could generate up to 15pc of the investment needed, leaving an annual funding gap of $6.2-$6.8 billion, equivalent to just 0.26pc of GDP.
“Australia needs to recognise that the transition towards net zero emissions is actually an opportunity to repair Australia’s landscapes at scale,” Professor Pittock said.
“The Blueprint shows the repair actions will contribute to Australia meeting our international commitments on climate change and biodiversity, at the same time as boosting the economy through increasing regional employment, improving agricultural productivity, and building resilience to climate change.”
“The key finding of our Blueprint is that Australians don’t have to choose. We can afford to have both a healthy environment and a productive economy”.
The Wentworth Group is an independent group of 14 scientists and professionals. Their collective mission is to
secure the long-term health of Australia’s land, water and biodiversity through the provision of practical,
evidence-based solutions to the big policy challenges of the day.
Members of the group are Dr Emma Carmody, Mr Mike Grundy, Dr Terry Hillman AM, Prof Lesley Hughes, Prof David Karoly FAA, Prof Richard Kingsford, Prof Martine Maron, A/Prof Bradley Moggridge, Prof Jamie Pittock, Mr Rob Purves, Prof Fran Sheldon, Ms Teagan Shields, Prof Bruce Thom AM, Mr Martijn Wilder AM.
Source: The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists. The Blueprint can be accessed at this link.
Shame on the Wentworth Group of Scientists for giving no genuine credit to the constant best practice innovations and ecosystems improvements to Australia’s rangelands and farming zones that have taken place over the last 30 years plus years. It’s been achieved by the combined efforts of innovator farmers and graziers, research scientists in agriculture and ecology, agricultural engineers and IT specialists along with educators, farm consultants and ag businesses.
If “…many Australians felt daunted by the challenge our degraded environment presents” how about the concerned scientists take a look at whose continuing to degrade the environment. Take a look at inappropriate peri-urban planning and residential development, inappropriate coastal and tourism developments, highway wildlife road kills, feral dogs and cats, foxes, rabbits, pigs, kangaroos, sewerage treatment plants, local and state government bureaucracies claiming consultation but not listening and so on. The Blueprint is a document for the 1980’s not the 2020’s and beyond. Time to give credit where credit is due.
I smell another Kyoto scam, I mean scheme coming. I’m all for preservation and regeneration. Farmers as a rule do look after their land better than most. If the government or this feel good group used that money and put a bounty on the top 6 feral pests and the rest on weeds i think the environment might stand a chance. I’m sure beef central can rattle of a decent enough list of feel good programmes that only lined a handful of pockets and delivered well short of the targets. Cheers Matthew Della Gola