At a glanceThe National Water Initiative has driven water policy, planning and management reforms in Australia for the past decade, which have delivered significant benefits for all Australians. It is critical that there should be no backsliding from reform principles. During a similar or...

2016  The National Water Initiative is Australia’s national blueprint for water reform. It is a national agreement that represents a shared appreciation of the need to implement a strategic framework to achieve an efficient and sustainable water industry. During the past 5 years, impetus...

2016 Outlook The outlook described above has both positive and negative components, although the negative tends to dominate. This balance can potentially shift, by using a variety of policies, tools, approaches and resources that are being developed...

At a glanceClimate change is a global problem that will require coordinated international action by all countries. The Paris Agreement, to which 195 countries (including Australia) have agreed, aims to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-...

2016 Land Effectiveness of management Timor Sea East Coast Although positive developments in resourcing, evidence-based policy-making and management effectiveness are...

2016 Outlook An ‘improved future’ scenario for Australia’s environment would see innovation in policy, technical and associated management approaches to: halt and reverse the decline in the environment, and the ecological processes that maintain...

At a glanceEscalation of existing risks such as invasive species, climate change and changing fire regimes, and the interactions between these risks, will continue to exert significant and widespread changes on biodiversity. The importance of some risks, or at least the perception of those...

2016 Climate Effectiveness of management South Coast An important role of government is to develop effective policies, implemented through supporting strategies and plans. Emissions...

2016 Effectiveness of management Managing the environment increasingly requires an understanding of how different pressures interact, and how management frameworks interact across different jurisdictions and sectors. It also requires sufficient...

2016 Biodiversity Risks It is inevitable that the impact of climate change will continue to increase, given current trajectories (see the Drivers and Atmosphere reports). The interaction of climate change with other...

At a glanceAustralia has had national standards and goals for ambient air quality for almost 20 years—the National Environment Protection Measure for Ambient Air Quality (Air NEPM). These are based on strong empirical evidence about the health impacts of major pollutants. However, revision...