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Climate change discourse is increasingly gaining ground in the political arena, both as a possible explanation and/or outcome of different crises and as "a climate crisis" on its own. With an increasing number of metaphors used to describe the phenomena linked to climate change, "net zero" is one the fastest emerging frames, yet it is understudied. This paper draws on climate security research and looks at the climate change discourse in Australia with a focus on the "net zero" target. Is climate change an explanatory instrument in Australian election campaigns that can be ascribed as a political concern? Climate change has been an appealing but undeveloped topic in Australian political discourse. In Australia environmental concerns have taken ground after the bushfires in 2019 and the climate discourse had an impact on the 2019 and 2022's electoral campaigns. Climate change is arguably the fastest growing concern in Australian politics; it is fair to say that the 2022 election was "the climate election". This research adopts a corpus-based Critical Discourse Analysis approach for a systematic analysis of the "net zero" target in Australian political discourse, its political significance, and its resonance both in electoral speeches and social media in the last ten years. The corpus consists of presidential speeches during the elections and tweets by the Australia Prime Ministers in the timeframe from 2013 to 2022, also taking into consideration comments by users in Australia and worldwide. The analysis of the "net zero" target can contribute to a better understanding of how climate change is politically construed and communicated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Given the crucial role that environmental accounting plays in sustainable development, this study investigates the relationship between climate change disclosure performance (CCDP) and financial distress as well as the moderating impact of litigation, the existence of a risk committee, the employment of Big4 auditing firms and the level of audit fees. Utilising a sample of the top 300 Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)‐listed non‐financial firms over the period 2008–2019 and ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analysis with fixed effects, it is found that higher levels of CCDP are related to lower levels of financial distress. Additionally, the significant association between CCDP and financial distress is manifested in firms with low litigation risk, firms with a risk committee, firms that employ Big4 auditing firms and firms that incur a higher level of audit fees. Additional tests that mitigate self‐selection and endogeneity, such as propensity score matching (PSM) and the system generalised method of moments (GMM), show that our findings are robust. Finally, our findings shed light on managers' strategic behaviour in relation to the consideration of, and transparency around, climate change risks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What can we learn from the prodigious expansion of the non-government protected areas that now comprise 12% of terrestrial Australia? An increasingly professional, formal, and diverse non-government sector has developed since 1990, comprising private individuals, non-government organizations, and First Nations and having close ties to governments. We investigate the drivers, dynamics, and diversity of this sector through thematic analysis of 24 key informant interviews and associated gray literature. Changing environmental movements, science-led conservation, partial recognition of First Nations land rights, international agreements, and neoliberal reforms combined to formalize the sector during the 1990s. A bipartisan policy framework for incorporating non-government lands in the national conservation estate, diverse partnerships, transnational networks, and innovation in public and private funding helped grow the sector. The confluence of interests that has transformed the politics and practice of nature conservation in Australia is likely to inform those engaged with similar changes elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Neoliberal thought has exerted significant influence over the crafting and delivery of environmental policy. This has manifested in enlisting non-state actors to advance environmental policy agendas in ways that were previously the responsibility of the state. The participation of these non-state actors is positioned as integral to solving intractable environmental challenges, such as the degradation of fish habitat. Drawing on responsibilisation as a technique of governance, this research adopts a case-based study of fisheries rehabilitation policy to explore how recreationists are being mobilized to address environmental problems. Deploying interpretive policy analysis to analyze key policy artifacts this research highlights how fishers as recreational users of aquatic areas are constituted as moral, political and authoritative actors who bear responsibility for ameliorating degraded fish habitats, despite the impacts of recreational fishing on these habitats being contested. We conclude by identifying the implications of this responsibilisation for the implementation of co-management and shared stewardship of fisheries resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By focusing on the Nauruan and Maralinga Tjarutja campaigns for environmental rehabilitation from and justice regarding colonial-era phosphate mining and nuclear testing, this article investigates a striking double standard in the way the Australian Government dealt with the legacies of environmental extraction and toxicity in the Robert (Bob) Hawke--Paul Keating era (1983-96). As the Nauruan politician Alfred Derangdedage Dick underlined, Australia's reluctance to accept liability for environmental damage inflicted during its administration of the island was inconsistent with its demands that the United Kingdom take responsibility for cleaning up residual radioactive waste from the British nuclear testing program in South Australia. The comparison reveals that despite the natural tendency towards legal solutions that minimised their respective liability and avoided the creation of unwanted precedents, Australian and British officials nonetheless took seriously the moral and political implications of their respective positions. While admitting that moral, legal and political tensions are at the heart of all modern environmental policy (especially when significant costs are involved), this article nonetheless demonstrates that the absence of official co-operation at key moments in the Nauruan pursuit of a practical, post-mining solution is what ultimately led to an unsatisfactory legal settlement and further acrimony. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Murray–Darling Basin Plan, a major initiative to return water from irrigators to the environment, has been lauded as world-class water reform. The enabling legislation for the Basin Plan, the Water Act, gains its constitutional legitimacy from international treaties such as the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. This Act mandated that water be returned from consumptive uses to the environment. An allocation of 2,750 GL/yr was set but has been reduced by the 'Sustainable Diversion Limit Adjustment Mechanism' (SDLAM), intended to achieve equivalent environmental benefits with less water. We present a synthesis of changes in decision contexts that have led to water reforms being 'watered down'. We analysed the policy discourse of water reform to assess whether SDLAM projects will achieve outcomes congruent with Australia's international treaty obligations. We found little or no alignment between the purpose of the SDLAM projects and the principles of the treaties and the Water Act. As water scarcity increases under climate change, attempting to conserve wetlands (including rivers) with less water while maintaining or increasing irrigation diversions is likely to prove maladaptive. A major reframing of environmental water policy and management is required to enable meaningful and effective adaptation to climate change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Changing human behaviour and social systems are key to reversing the global biodiversity crisis. Pro‐environmental behaviour is guided by values and connection with nature, but because they have mostly been studied separately, the interplay between values and nature connection in influencing pro‐environmental behaviour remains unclear.In particular, it is uncertain whether people who hold anthropocentric values have a less positive connection with nature than those who hold ecocentric values, and whether nature protection behaviours differ between people with different values or strengths of connection to nature.We used a stratified survey of 2100 respondents across Australia to measure orientation towards nature. We created segments based on individual values and connection with nature and characterised each segment based on demographics, nature‐exposure, pro‐environmental behaviours, support for environmental policies and political alignment.We discovered that a quarter of respondents had anthropocentric values alongside a strong connection with nature. Moreover, of those with a strong connection with nature, people with anthropocentric values more frequently undertook certain pro‐environmental behaviours than those with ecocentric values.Our findings indicate that the strong expression of pro‐environmental behaviour is not limited to people with ecocentric values. Rather, people with different values and strengths of connection to nature engage in different types of impactful nature protection behaviours, challenging stereotypes about those with anthropocentric values.These results further suggest that behavioural intervention strategies could be tailored to reach sectors of society with various combinations of values and strengths of connection to nature, thus maximising the expression of pro‐environmental behaviour across the entire population. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current study looks at the causes of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by considering the implications of remittances in the presence of economic growth, financial development, and energy consumption in the case of selected four G-20 economies over the period 1990–2019. This study first uses the dynamic simulated ARDL model to stimulate, estimate, and plot to predict graphs of negative and positive changes occurring in the variables along with their short-run and long-run relationships. Results of the ARDL bounds test confirm a long-term relationship among remittances, financial development, economic growth energy consumption, and CO2 emissions. Furthermore, the error correction model (ECM) also confirms the long-run relationship among CO2 emissions, remittances, financial development, economic growth, and energy use. The results of a novel dynamic simulated ARDL disclosed that financial development is completely connected to CO2 emissions in Mexico and India in the long run. On the other hand, results confirm that there is a positive relationship between remittances and CO2 emissions in the case of Australia, Germany, and India, but this relationship is insignificant with CO2 emissions in the case of Mexico. The result further disclosed that renewable energy exerts a significant impact on CO2 in Australia, Mexico, India, and Germany in the long run while remittances wield a significant impact on CO2 emissions in Australia, Mexico, and India. Moreover, the findings concluded that GDP has significant nexus with CO2 in the long run in the case of Australia, Mexico, and Germany. This study uses up new visions for the economies of G-20 countries to sustain financial and economic growth by protecting the environment from pollution through its efficient national environmental policy, fiscal policy, and monetary policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

River flows are commonly altered by water resource development, with changes to the natural flow regime potentially impacting riparian vegetation. Increasingly, water resource managers seek to design policy to maintain healthy riparian ecosystems. Models that make explicit the relationship between hydrological variables and vegetation can be used by managers to assess vegetation response under different water management scenarios.We determined the potential impact of water‐takeon the spatial distribution of woody riparian plant species in the lower Fitzroy River, in north‐western Australia, an area under pressure to increase water resource development. We undertook a plant survey and developed and applied a joint species distribution model to determine the likelihood of occurrence for 26 woody riparian plant species, mapped species occurrence and assessed the change in species distribution under two water‐take scenarios.We found that the duration of inundation from flood flows was a strong predictor of species occurrence in our joint species distribution model. We identified species associated with wetter environments, as indicated by their effect size for the inundation metric. Under the 300‐Gl water‐take scenario we found little change (<2%) in species occurrence, but under the 600‐Gl scenario a decline between 5% and 7.4% was predicted for eight species associated with wetter habitats. This decline was generally confined to a localised area.Our approach highlights the usefulness of predictive modelling to identify species most likely to be impacted by water‐take, and the benefit of linking modelling to spatial mapping because it can highlight areas where change is likely to occur. This information can assist management to protect ecologically and culturally important species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Worldwide, floodplains have been alienated from river channels for flood protection and water resource development, but several recent programs have restored connectivity, generating considerable ecological and , socio-economic benefits. In Australia, under the Murray-Darling Basin Plan, water purchased from irrigators is used to restore wetlands. Maximising ecological benefits with limited water requires constraints relaxation, whereby high flow volumes for ecologically effective floods are released from headwater dams and allowed to flood public and private land en route to wetlands downstream, requiring infrastructure works and rights to inundate private land. We examined five focal areas in the Basin Constraints Management Strategy to determine ecosystem services benefits generated by floods on land between dams and target wetlands We found multiple examples where significant co-benefits could be realised but had not been identified. Accordingly, the assessment of costs and benefits was primarily focussed on costs. We categorised ecosystem services for each focal area as of low, medium or high importance andassigned monetary values where possible. Regulating and cultural services, rather than provisioning services, ranked highest across all focus areas, including groundwater recharge, regulation of riparian habitat quality, aesthetic appreciation, recreation and tourism, Indigenous and community values. The business cases seek to maximise costs and thus the transfer of public funds in compensation to landholders. However, there are important public policy considerations of equity, accountability and transparency, including proof of damage prior to compensation, as well as offsetting losses against ecosystem services benefits. We consider that an ecosystem services approach could greatly improve acceptance of constraints relaxation amongst landholders and the development of novel policy options and instruments that can help advance the implementation of the Basin Plan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]