Governance of Land-based Negative-emission Technologies to Promote Biodiversity Conservation: Lessons from Australia

• Published in: Climate law Vol. 10; no. 2; pp. 123 - 150
• Main Authors: McCormack, Phillipa C, McDonald, Jan, Brent, Kerryn A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Leiden Brill | Nijhoff 01-06-2020
• Subjects: Biodiversity conservation; Climatic changes; Greenhouse gas mitigation; International cooperation; Land use; Law and legislation; Law reform; AUSTRALIA
• ISSN: 1878-6553; 1878-6561; 1878-6561
• DOI: 10.1163/18786561-01002001

Climate change is a fundamental threat to biodiversity. Climate mitigation in general, and Negative-Emission Technologies (nets) in particular, have the potential to benefit biodiversity by reducing climate impacts. Domestic laws could help to ensure that nets have benefits for biodiversity adaptation to climate change (e.g. reducing land clearing and habitat loss and facilitating habitat restoration, corridors for species' migration, and broader ecological resilience). Domestic laws will also need to govern trade-offs between nets and biodiversity adaptation (e.g. increased competition for land and landscape-scale fragmentation by new industrial developments and linear infrastructure). We argue that domestic laws should be used to maximize the benefits of nets while minimizing trade-offs for biodiversity. These laws should ensure that trade-offs are, at the very least, explicit and transparent, both in terms of their implications for current biodiversity and in the context of an acceleration of climate-driven biodiversity decline.