Publication
Ontario’s Working for Workers Five Act receives royal assent
On October 28, Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received royal assent.
Author:
Australia | Publication | March 2022
This article was co-authored by Sashank Krishnamoorthy.
The Commonwealth government recently introduced into the Parliament the Agriculture Biodiversity Stewardship Market Bill 2022 (Bill). The Bill seeks to legislate a national voluntary agricultural stewardship market that will recognise and financially reward efforts to restore, enhance or protect biodiversity.
The Bill is before the lower house where the second reading was moved on 9 February 2022.
The objectives of the Bill are to:1
The Bill contributes to the Australian Government’s Ag2030 vision, which includes a target for the agriculture sector to reach $100 billion in production by 2030. The Bill also facilitates private sector investment in projects, through enabling the purchase of biodiversity certificates which represent certified biodiversity outcomes.
The Agriculture Minister will have primary responsibility for the legislation, and the Clean Energy Regulator (Regulator) will be the regulatory authority.
If the Bill is passed, farmers and other persons may be able to participate in the market by registering biodiversity projects and applying for the issuance of biodiversity certificates. The private sector may seek to purchase biodiversity certificates in order to make credible and verifiable claims around supporting biodiversity outcomes and local communities. It is very much contemplated that a biodiversity project may exist on the same land as an eligible offsets project under the Emissions Reduction Fund.
The Bill proposes the following process to obtain a biodiversity certificate:
The Bill contemplates that certain decisions can be reviewed internally by the Regulator and externally by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (including a decision to approve or refuse to approve the registration of a biodiversity project, as well as a decision to issue or refuse to issue a biodiversity certificate). The Bill also incorporates various compliance and enforcement measures that are intended to maintain confidence in the integrity of the market.
A biodiversity certificate will be personal property that is owned and traded separately from the land. It will remain valid for the life of the biodiversity project. Biodiversity certificates will detail the key aspects of the biodiversity project and identify the type of biodiversity outcome that is being delivered and maintained.
A public register will be established and maintained by the Regulator to track biodiversity projects and biodiversity certificates (including the issuance, ownership and transfer of certificates).
While there are some parallels between biodiversity certificates and the scheme for Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011, some notable differences include:
The Bill is still in the initial stages of the law-making process in Parliament (the second reading in the lower house was moved on 9 February 2022). We anticipate that there may be some amendments to the Bill before it is enacted.
The explanatory memorandum to the Bill can be accessed via the following link which provides some more insight:
If you have any questions, would like some further information or advice on this proposed new scheme, please feel free to contact a member of our team.
Publication
On October 28, Bill 190, Working for Workers Five Act, 2024 received royal assent.
Publication
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