Nature laws agreement delivers big forests outcome; much work to be done on climate
CANBERRA, 27 NOV 2025 — Greenpeace has welcomed the agreement struck by Labor and the Greens today on EPBC Act reforms, which secures new nature and forest protections, but says there remains major work to be done to halt the severe climate impacts on nature from coal and gas projects.
David Ritter, CEO at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said:
“The agreement announced today secures a significant improvement on the broken laws that for too long failed to deliver credible environmental protection. There will be trees that will stand, wildlife that will survive and ecosystems that may flourish again because of this.
“These reforms will remove exemptions that have allowed unchecked bulldozing of Australia’s forests. Australia is a global deforestation hotspot, and this is a big and important step forward in ending this rampant destruction. The Albanese Government now has the opportunity to model forest protection to the world by ending and reversing deforestation by 2030, a promise Australia made in 2022 as part of global climate talks in Glasgow.
“Removing the risk of fast-tracking coal and gas projects is also welcome. But the big sting in the tail is that the legislation still fails to address the enormous climate harm to nature from these sorts of projects. It still leaves the door open for the heedless expansion of coal and gas—major drivers of worsening bushfires, floods, and other climate disasters that destroy ecosystems and harm species.
“There will be lots of work to do to ensure these revised laws protect and restore nature. This includes making the proposed national environmental standards as strong as possible, funding and setting up the EPA to succeed, and ensuring the biodiversity offset system is not abused by big developers. Greenpeace also maintains the firm position that the Federal Government should be the final decision-maker on project approvals.
“Environmental protection laws have one job: to protect the environment. Significant progress on nature protection signalled in the agreement today is very welcome, but must be followed up by strong implementation and ending the expansion of fossil fuels.”
-ENDS-
NOTE TO EDITORS: Glenn Walker, Head of Nature Program at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, is at Parliament House and available for interviews.
For more information or interviews, please contact Vai Shah at 0452 290 082 or [email protected]