Authors: Euan G Ritchie and Dale Nimmo
Published in: Science
As Australia’s 2025 federal election approaches, political parties and candidates must demonstrate increased commitment to addressing climate change and biodiversity loss. Without urgent action, species and ecosystems already under severe pressure will continue to decline and collapse, and global biodiversity targets, such as establishing a trend of recovery by 2030, will be nearly impossible to achieve. Australia must become a conservation leader by protecting and repairing its extraordinary and largely endemic biodiversity.
More than 2000 species and over 100 ecological communities are threatened with extinction in Australia, and the list continues to grow rapidly. Koalas were listed as endangered in 2022 under national environmental law, and the Great Barrier Reef is deteriorating through repeated bleaching events. Yet funding for conservation in Australia is insufficient and well below levels of other nations with similar socioeconomic characteristics and capacity, such as the United States.
Australia’s primary environmental law, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act, has failed to enable the federal government to effectively protect the environment and cannot adequately address current and future environmental challenges. The current federal government promised to reform the law to remedy these shortfalls, but the process has stalled.
In the meantime, Australia’s government is hoping to greatly improve conservation outcomes by creating a “nature repair market”. This initiative would reward individuals and corporations for investing in nature restoration projects. Conservation investment from industry is welcome, but this market may not fill the void in government funding. Moreover, a market mechanism may be less efficient than direct investment from government. Either way, the market’s credibility will be undermined if the downward trend of Australia’s biodiversity continues due to ineffective environmental laws.
The next Australian government must prioritize conservation by fast-tracking environmental law reform and strengthening enforcement. Development proposal assessments should explicitly consider emissions as “climate triggers” and either rule out proposals deemed too severe or require developers to meaningfully mitigate the impacts of projects. Only urgent action to address climate change can prevent long-term and widespread environmental damage. An annual investment of $7.3 billion AUD, about 0.3% of gross national product, for 30 years would support substantial progress toward protecting and recovering Australia’s environments and species. Australia’s next administration must commit to this investment to help meet national and global environmental and conservation goals.
Ritchie EG, Nimmo DG (2025) Addressing Australia’s biodiversity crisis. Science PDF DOI
Applied ecology and conservation research group 