Agree Communique – (Australian) Environment Ministers Meeting, 9 June 2023
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Australia’s environment ministers met today in Sydney with a renewed purpose to work together to achieve a Nature Positive Australia to leave our environment better off for our kids and grandkids.
Ministers agreed the need to take action now, and for future generations, to:
• Build a nature positive Australia where we protect more of what’s precious, manage nature better for the future and repair more of what’s damaged.
• Work together in pilot regions to support proponents for renewable energy, critical minerals and other projects to bring forward better informed proposals that avoid impacts on our unique nature and precious heritage and support stronger clearer protections and faster, better decisions under environment and heritage legislation. This will include providing joined-up support, data and information.
• Shift Australia toward a safer, circular economy by putting in place a new packaging regulatory scheme that will for the first time, develop mandatory packaging design obligations, so packaging is designed to minimise waste and be recovered, reused, recycled and reprocessed.
Ministers agreed to approach these reforms with a commitment to early, meaningful partnership with First Nations peoples as stewards of land and sea country and Australia’s unique cultural heritage.
Protecting more of what’s precious
Implementing our Nature Positive Plan
Ministers acknowledged the significant progress in reforming national environmental laws, including the release of the Australian Government’s Nature Positive Plan: better for the environment, better for business in December 2022. The top priority for 2023 is to consult on the new nature positive laws and national environmental standards with details of the legislation to be released for broad consultation in the second half of 2023.
Improving national environmental data and our ability to share that data with the public will ensure decisions are transparent. Ministers noted the establishment of Environment Information Australia – as our national environmental data office – and agreed to work together to identify and remove barriers to enable sharing of information between jurisdictions.
Ministers acknowledged the importance of supporting a transition to a net zero economy. As a result, Ministers agreed to identify priority renewable energy and critical minerals projects by September 2023, and to support these projects to put forward better applications based on strong protection and best practice to avoid environmental impacts and achieve faster decisions with clear and coordinated regulatory timeframes and robust First Nations engagement.
Ministers also agreed to identify where, with better harmonisation of environmental assessments, there is opportunity for reduced timeframes, stronger protections and to make better and faster decisions.
Responding to the new, ambitious Global Biodiversity Framework
Ministers acknowledged the significant outcome in the adoption of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in December 2022, which includes the flagship ’30 by 30’ target. Australia must now chart a course to a nature positive future aligned with the ambition in the Framework.
Ministers agreed to:
• Take shared action to address the biodiversity crisis by setting ambitious national targets, in line with the Global Biodiversity Framework, by mid 2024
• By 2024 develop a roadmap to protect and conserve 30% of Australia’s land
• Strengthen Australia’s marine protection, and identify shared marine and coastal protection, pollution abatement and restoration actions to include in a national Sustainable Ocean Plan.
Repairing more of what’s damaged – enhancing threatened species recovery
Threats to our imperilled plants and animals do not stop at the borders and the recovery of these species can most effectively be tackled where all levels of government join forces. This means aligning approaches to conservation planning and protection and undertaking coordinated on- ground action.
Ministers agreed to increased ambition to recover threatened plants and animals by tackling key invasive species, including a gap analysis for feral cat control and to make legislative reforms providing greater certainty and consistency in national protection for threatened species and ecological communities.
Managing nature better for the future – transitioning to a circular economy
Ministers reiterated their commitment to transition Australia from a “take, make, waste” economy toward a more resilient and regenerative circular economy that maximises the value of materials and minimises waste and pollution. This is a big challenge as only 12 per cent of plastics were recycled in Australia in 2020-21.
Ministers noted the role and focus areas of the Commonwealth’s Circular Economy Advisory Group and invited the group to provide advice on priorities for cross-jurisdictional collaboration to accelerate Australia’s transition to a circular economy in early 2024.
Ministers also agreed the importance of the Australian fashion industry implementing a well supported product stewardship scheme by 30 June 2024. They agreed to closely monitor industry participation in this and other schemes and will take steps to regulate product stewardship outcomes if required.
Ministers agreed that:
• the Australian Government will lead development of a national framework to direct Australia’s transition to a circular economy, informed by the work of the Circular Economy Advisory Group.
• for the first time, Australia will mandate obligations for packaging design as part of a new packaging regulatory scheme based on international best practice and make industry responsible for the packaging they place on the market. This scheme will also regulate out harmful chemicals and other contaminants in packaging. To support food waste recycling Ministers agreed that a timeline will be set to remove contaminants from compostable food packaging.
• a national roadmap will be developed for staged improvements to the harmonisation of kerbside collections, taking into account circumstances of metropolitan, regional and remote communities for Ministers to consider in 2024.
Ministers agreed to progress several approaches for consideration at the next meeting to further progress waste and recycling reforms, including:
• a national framework for recycled content traceability that will provide manufacturers and other users the confidence they need to use quality recycled materials, thereby supporting the transition to a circular economy.
• accelerating product stewardship efforts including by developing a framework to guide interjurisdictional efforts and drive action on problematic products. This framework will support national efforts to regulate packaging, solar panels and electrical equipment and support jurisdictions to progress reform in relation to particular products. In the first instance, Ministers agreed that Western Australia will lead on the development of national principles for product stewardship for tyres, and that NSW will lead on a product stewardship approach for solvents.
Media release – Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR), 9 June 2023
ACOR WELCOMES ACTION TO DELIVER A CIRCULAR ECONOMY FOR PACKAGING
The Australian Council of Recycling (ACOR) warmly welcomes the commitment made by Australia’s Environment Ministers to support a circular economy for packaging.
“We applaud Australia’s Environment Ministers for their decision to regulate packaging design, with the aim of achieving important targets for reuse, recyclability, and recycled content,” said Suzanne Toumbourou, CEO of ACOR. “A stronger regulatory framework, which promotes circular design and ensures robust end markets for recycled materials, is essential for a sustainable recycling system.”
“Effective measures to support recycling outcomes not only provide significant environmental benefits by reducing waste and improving resource efficiency, but also contribute to job creation and economic growth,” said Ms. Toumbourou.
Currently, the recycling sector contributes almost $19 billion in economic value and sustains over 90,000 jobs; surpassing Australia’s economic growth rate by over 1.5 times in the past year.
“The recycling sector is an integral link in the circular supply chain. We look forward to collaborating across industries and with governments to achieve and exceed the National Packaging Targets, while also fostering great economic benefits for Australia.” said Ms. Toumbourou.
Media release – Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR), 9 June 2023
WMRR welcomes Environment Ministers’ agreement to act on packaging
The Waste Management and Resource Recovery Association of Australia (WMRR) welcomes the announcement by Environment Ministers that there will finally be real action taken by government on packaging, with design rules aimed at cutting waste and boosting recycling being introduced.
“This is a great start,” said WMRR CEO Ms Gayle Sloan, “the introduction of mandated targets for recycled content is the first step on the path to creating the level playing field industry desperately needs between virgin and recycled materials.
“To grow demand for the materials that we consume and the recyclate that we produce as a country, we need a strong local market to buy these materials back. We have witnessed that the existing voluntary targets have not and will not drive this demand, so this step is welcome by industry.”
WMRR applauds the Ministers for recognising the importance of both design and increasing products that can be circulated, and any chance of succeeding relies on robust systems that enable re-use, repair and recycle. Whilst the government is starting to get the right idea with this agreement, the job is not yet done; in fact, it has only just begun.
“We need these systems change to continue. We need to ensure that in line with the export bans, we have local demand, which means committing to using Australian recycled content and not imported recycled content. It is only logical that if we stop Australia recycling commodities going offshore, then we must disallow recycling commodities from other countries to come on-shore,” Ms Sloan said.
There remains an expectation by Ministers that companies producing packaging will take responsibility for their waste and Ms Sloan warned that real change will only be realised by the mandatory scheme foreshadowed at Senate Estimates on the 24th of May.
“We know that the co-regulatory approach taken by the Australian Packaging Covenant over the last twenty years has not delivered, and the reality is that a genuine systems change that covers all packaging streams, including imports and exports, is required. To enact this change, we need a genuine Extended Producer Responsibility funded by the packaging industry that links to genuine enforcement of the impending design standards as well as the existing export regulations. WMRR is very keen to be part of this shift and involved in this exciting development,” Ms Sloan said.
“Further design standards are also welcome, such as accelerating the ban on PFAS in Australia across all categories and not just packaging.
“WMRR congratulates our Environment Ministers to taking some brave steps forward, and we are confident that they will remain committed to this path of reform, which is what we need to hit both 80% resource recovery by 2030 and our carbon and circular targets. Bravo,” Ms Sloan said.
