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NATIONAL

Testing by CSIRO has confirmed that the highly infectious H5 bird flu, which has devastated many bird, seal and sea lion populations around the world, has been found in Australia.

Testing showed a dead brown skua in Western Australia was infected with the virus, and a giant petrel found in Western Australia is also thought to be infected.

"The overseas experience is that there have been significant mortality events in birds and mammals where this disease has become established," Australia's Threatened Species Commissioner, Dr Fiona Fraser, said in a weekend press conference.

"We expect that if it does become established in Australia there will also be impacts to Australian wildlife, in particular birds and mammals," she said.

Dr Fraser said the federal government had worked with states and territories to develop more than 100 plans for our most important natural sties, such as Ramsar wetlands and islands.

The plans also target some of Australia's most vulnerable species, including the Tasmanian Devil (susceptible because it scavenges dead birds), and the orange bellied parrot.

The Conversation on the weekend published a detailed explainer on H5 bird flu, and there is also a government bird flu website.

Nearly 85% of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's environmental water target has now been achieved, Environment Minister Murray Watt has announced.

The current Basin Plan requires an additional 450GL of water to be recovered annually for environmental purposes by the end of 2027 - an amount deemed vital to keep the river system healthy in the face of a drying climate.

More than 380GL of water has now been recovered towards the 450GL annual target, through a combination of federally-funded water efficiency infrastructure projects and voluntary water purchasing, the Minister said.

A new update from the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder describes the beneficial impacts of these increased allocations, which include support for 26,000 kilometres of waterways and 11 Ramsar wetlands.

Minister Watt said a further 20GL towards the 450GL target is set to be recovered by the end of this year through purchases of water entitlements offered by voluntary sellers.

"You simply can't have sustainable communities if you don’t have a sustainable environment, and last year's Basin Plan evaluation showed that our rivers and wetlands are now better off thanks to the Plan – while at the same time our agricultural production has continued to set new records," the Minister said.

Under the former Coalition government, just 2GL of the promised 450GL was returned for environmental purposes over 10 years, Murray Watt added.

The Australian National Audit Office has released a report on Snowy Hydro 2.0, concluding that Snowy Hydro has been partly effective in managing the project.

The ANAO notes that the pumped hydro scheme will be Australia's largest renewable energy project, comprising a new underground power station and 27 kilometres of tunnels that will link two existing dams.

When complete, it is expected to provide a generation capacity of 2.2GW of dispatchable electricity and approximately 350GWh of storage capacity, sufficient to power three million homes for one week.

In 2018, the project was expected to cost $5.9 billion, but it is now expected to cost $12 billion.

Australia has endorsed a new declaration signed in Paris by G7 leaders, which aims to establish more secure supply chains for critical minerals.

Minister for Resources and Northern Australia Madeleine King said Australia "has a responsibility to step up and lead on critical minerals and rare earths globally".

"Critical minerals and rare earths are vital for the renewable energy transition, but are also increasingly important to our defence and national security," the Minister said.

Since 2022, Australia has committed $28 billion to support Australia’s critical minerals and rare earths sector, the Minister said. 

MCi Carbon has opened a demonstration carbon refinery in Newcastle that will capture waste CO2 emitted by Orica during ammonia production, and convert it into substances for use in making concrete, plasterboard, glass and paper.

The facility is located at Orica's Kooragang Island site, and will collect and convert 1,000 tonnes of CO2 a year.

The demonstration plant was built with the help of a $14.5 million grant provided hrough the federal Carbon Capture Technologies program. 

The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has awarded an additional $95.4 million grant to the Australian Centre for Advanced Photovoltaics (ACAP), to extend its solar research program.

Led by UNSW, ACAP members include several universities, as well as several major solar panel companies.

"If Australia is to achieve ultra low-cost solar, we need to keep pushing the limits of cell efficiency," said ARENA chief executive Darren Miller.

"ACAP's work is doing exactly that, helping deliver high-performance solar cell and module technologies that will reduce costs at scale."

The ACCC has launched Federal Court proceedings in the Federal Court against hamburger chain Grill’d for allegedly making false or misleading representations as part of a promotional tree-planting campaign.

Between January 2021 and April 2024, Grill’d ran a campaign in which the ACCC alleges Grill’d represented that it would donate $1 from every burger purchased on a Tuesday towards the planting of trees.

ACCC Chair Gina Cass-Gottlieb said the ACCC would allege the Tree Day Tuesday campaign constituted greenwashing.

"In fact, only a small percentage of purchases on Tuesdays qualified for a donation by Grill'd because of the detailed conditions of the promotion, which we say were not disclosed or not adequately disclosed to customers," she said.

Over five million burgers were bought on a Tuesday during the period between January 2021 and April 2024, but only around 4% qualified for a donation by Grill’d under its Tree Day Tuesday promotion, the ACCC said.

The federal government has announced that Maya Stuart-Fox will be the inaugural chief executive of Environment Information Australia - a new agency that starts operations on July 1.

"My aim is to make the best information on Australia’s unique biodiversity easier to find, share and use," Stuart-Fox said.

QUEENSLAND

The Queensland government has released a new waste strategy that abandons national waste and recycling targets.

The state government said the national targets weren't appropriate for Queensland, because it is such a decentralised state.

Instead, the strategy commits to a 65% recycling rate by 2035 - with a strong focus focus on boosting recycling by households - along with a 65% reduction in the amount of waste going to landfill.

The government has also pledged waste and recycling funding of more than $975 million over five years, which includes $487 million to boost recycling through the Waste Reduction and Recycling Activation Fund and $488 million in annual payments to councils to offset the costs of the waste levy on households.

The strategy also includes a commitment to develop a state-wide recycling infrastructure plan, and a regional energy from waste plan.

The strategy says the state government will advocate for the establishment of a national stewardship scheme for plastics that "does not add costs to Queenslanders".

In addition, it will push for national packaging reforms to ensure packaging is designed to be recyclable and that packaging producers take responsibility for their products after households and businesses have finished using them.

The Queensland government says its upcoming 2026-27 Budget will allocate $330.5 million to deliver the Reef 2050 Catchment Water Quality Strategy.

Meanwhile, the federal and state governments are jointly offering grants of up to $4 million to help develop affordable and innovative solutions to reduce nutrient and sediment pollution in urban water that ends up polluting the Great Barrier Reef.

A new report from the Queensland Renewable Energy Council says the renewables industry is increasingly concerned about changing domestic policy settings, and the complexity of approvals processes.

NSW

NSW's Auditor-General has released a report on the management and regulation of non-urban water in NSW, which notes there have been significant reforms since 2017.

The report recommends that the state government publish a review of the reforms, to evaluate their results. It also calls for improvements to IT and data management systems.

The audit report points out that water entitlements held by NSW farmers, mining companies and others were worth up to $41 billion in 2023, adding that there are about 40,000 water access licences held in the state.

The report notes that NSW's water resources are made up of a complex system of 58,000 kilometres of rivers and major streams. In addition, groundwater accounts for 27% of metered water use in NSW.

The Energy Security Corporation - the NSW government's new clean energy investment agency - will invest $100 million in the rollout of a large-scale battery platform across Sydney, Newcastle and the Hunter Central Coast.

The funding - which will be the ESC's inaugural investment - will support the construction of four batteries that will jointly have the capacity to power up to 118,000 homes a day.

Meanwhile, RWE's Limondale Battery Energy Storage System near Balranald has officially opened.

The battery, co-located with RWE's Limondale solar farm, is the first in Australia that is capable of discharging electricity for eight hours.

A NSW parliamentary committee inquiry into energy from waste has scheduled a hearing for July 1. Those scheduled to give evidence include representatives of Veolia, MRA Consulting, and the NSW EPA.

The NSW government has launched a $557 million Home Energy Saver program that will provide households that have an income under $210,000 with zero-interest, 10-year loans of up to $15,000 to undertake energy upgrades.

In addition to the zero-interest loans, the program will provide discounts of up to $4,000 to families earning under $80,000 that want to carry out upgrades.

Discounts will also be available to renters, to make upgrades with their landlord's permission.

VICTORIA

Statutory development - energy efficiency. Victoria's Energy Minister Lily D'Ambrosio has introduced a Bill to amend the Victorian Energy Upgrades scheme, which has operated in the state since 2009.

In that time, the program has delivered 93 million tonnes of greenhouse gas abatement, and has provided over $600 million in discounts for households and businesses.

Key amendments proposed in the Energy and Resources Legislation Amendment (VEET Strategic Review and Other Matters) Bill include:

•   Expanding the scheme's purpose and objects beyond direct greenhouse gas emissions reduction, so that it can help subsidise electrification activities and flexible demand technologies.

•   Introducing an adjustment factor mechanism so that greater incentives can be provided for activities or technologies that have broader benefits than reducing emissions, for example benefits for low-income households.

•   Introducing an Activities Order mechanism for adding energy upgrade (VEU scheme) activities to the VEU program, which will be simpler than introducing activities through new regulations.

•   Allowing energy retailers to carry forward a portion of their certificate surrender liability into the following year.

The Minister noted in her second reading speech that the operating context for the scheme has changed dramatically since it was launched in 2009.

When the Act was introduced in 2007, only 3% of Victoria’s electricity came from renewables, and the state did not have renewable energy or emissions reduction targets.

Victoria is now generating about 44% from renewables with 29% of homes generating their own solar energy, the Minister said.

In the five years from 2021 to 2025, the scheme is estimated to have helped households and businesses to save $3.8 billion on their electricity bills, Minister D'Ambrosio said.

The Victorian government has released eight draft Adaptation Action Plans for 2027-31. The eight plans deal with systems including the built environment, energy, health, the natural environment, primary production, transport, and water.

The state government is required by law to finalise the plans by the end of October.

The Clean Energy Council has warned that a Victorian Opposition proposal to mandate that renewable energy projects be at least two kilometres from the nearest home would "gut Victoria's development pipeline and with it, any credible path to meeting future energy demand".

The Clean Energy Council's analysis concluded the proposed setback would sterilise almost all land closest to existing and planned transmission infrastructure, including large parts of Victoria's Renewable Energy Zones.

It estimates the policy would cost 26,000 full-time jobs by 2035, with around three quarters located in regional Victoria.

It would also cost $3.2 billion in lost local procurement opportunities for Victorian businesses, deny payments totalling $179 million to host landowners, and prevent $33 million going to regional communities through community benefit payments, as well as denying regional councils payments worth $93 million, the Council said.

Victoria currently has a one-kilometre setback requirement.

The Victorian government has released revised Community Engagement and Social Value Guidelines that set minimum expectations for renewable energy developers.

The guidelines set 43 expectations for developers wanting to access Victoria's transmission network under the Victorian Access Regime.

TASMANIA

The Tasmanian government has awarded grants totalling more than $10 million to 30 waste and resource recovery projects.

WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The Western Australian EPA has proposed introducing a strengthened environmental protection policy to better protect the Western Swamp Tortoise, which is Australia's most endangered reptile.

There are thought to be less than 100 of the critically endangered tortoises surviving in their wetland habitat northeast of Perth.

NORTHERN TERRITORY

The NT government has released a Climate Resilience Plan, which acknowledges that climate change "is reshaping global and national economies".

The plan contains five strategic priorities, including delivering secure and reliable energy "through low emissions gas, electricity reforms, and investing in renewable energy where it makes economic sense".

It says fossil gas from the Beetaloo Basin "is relatively low in emissions because it contains 1% to 2% CO2".

"The Safeguard Mechanism also requires Beetaloo gas to be net zero at production, which is a stricter standard compared to production in existing gas fields," it says.

The plan says the NT government will also develop a comprehensive regulatory framework for onshore carbon capture and storage industries.

In addition, it will support the development of a Low Emissions Hub "to provide abatement solutions for Australia and the region and to attract low-emissions industry".

IDEAS, ADVOCACY, GUIDANCE, AND INNOVATION

The Investor Group on Climate Change has released its latest annual State of Net Zero Investment report.

Almost three-quarters of IGCC survey respondents (74%) reported no progress in removing barriers to climate-aligned investment in the past year, and one in five said conditions have worsened.

The primary barrier is a shortage of climate and clean energy investment opportunities with appropriate risk-return profiles, cited by 74% of respondents.

Policy and regulatory uncertainty was identified as a barrier by 56%, the second consecutive year of worsening data.

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