Australia’s national environment law is meant to protect the special species, precious habitats and iconic ecosystems that are essential to our health, economy and way of life. But these natural places are all under threat from climate change, fuelled by the burning of fossil fuels, and our environment law keeps giving new coal and gas projects the green light.

Key findings:

• Australia’s current environmental law does not explicitly address climate change, one of the biggest threats our environment now faces, and allows the Environment Minister to ignore the impacts of greenhouse gas emissions;
• Greenhouse gas emissions from individual projects are not currently directly regulated anywhere in Australian law; and that
• Our environment and climate laws are disconnected, when what we need is an integrated approach to protecting our environment and regulating harmful carbon emissions.