Introduction

Australia has been enjoying strong economic performance over the past 40 years. Australia has been fortunate when it comes to its cultural and natural heritage, strong political democratic system, social viability and availability of resources to support the economic prosperity (Australian Government, 2014). However, there are many challenges that the future entails for this developing world in order to support continuous prosperity. Globally, Australians do enjoy an enviable quality of life with its unique and diverse environment. The social stability and stable democratic heritage along with the availability of the resources allow Australia to grow exponentially. Being one of the most urbanized country, Australia’s cities are playing a vital role for securing the economic, social and environmental wellbeing of the country. State, territory and local governments along with business and communities have been taking active part in the discussion on the future of Australia. The global issues being faced by Australia include biodiversity loss, climate change, and poverty, competition for resources, increased population growth, geopolitical instability and rapidly changing innovative technology (Australian Government, 2014). In order to achieve prosperity, individuals have responsibilities well beyond their immediate surrounding that cannot be isolated from each other. There is a need for global efforts for meeting the challenges of environmental damages, economic instability and depleting resources along with growing number of social issues that indicate signs of unsustainable future ahead.

This report is a reflection of how Australia is managing and forecasting its environmental planning in light with broader issues such as water shortages, biodiversity loss and climate change.

 

Background

The natural, fragile and complex environment has been under increasing pressure from habitat loss, pollution, climate change and inappropriate planning. The changes brought in the environment has resulted in faster extension of many species whereas the precious places are also diminishing due to lack of planning. Global warming is affecting inhabitants and nature in number of ways be it intense storms, bushfires, diseases or survival of human species (Hockey, 2015). Australia is working its ways to keep the global warming at a level less than 2⁰ C whereas the action plans for climate change are being implemented so that the natural world can be protected By protecting the environment, the Government contributes towards economic growth as improved natural environment can boost up tourism opportunities while improved fisheries can also leave a long term positive effects on the fishing industry (Cox, 2015).

 

Situation Analysis

Australians have been facing the immediate challenge of dwindling water supplies, increasing energy cost, severe storms, failing food bowls, coastal erosion, flooding, housing shortage, rising transportation cost and sever bushfires (Australian Government, 2010). Three-quarters of Australians live in major cities like Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth etc. These 18 major cities have the population above 100, 000 as shown in the figure below. This indicates the challenges associated with shortage of housing, productivity challenges and growing ageing population.

Figure 1: Population Changes from 2001 to 2010 in 18 Major Cities of Australia

Source: (ABS, 2014)

The climate of Australia has been changing due to global trend. This climate change is expected to accelerate in near future while present opportunities and challenges for Australian economy. Based on the direct measurements in Integrational Report by Australian Government, the current rise in the greenhouse gases by 40% since 19^th century has pushed the ocean, land and ice sheets systems while putting the future of nature in danger (Salleh, 2014).

 

Environmental Management and Planning in Australia

The pressures being faced by Australian environment includes water and land resources that have its long lasting impact in the environmental endowment that will be left for future generations. These changes that will unfold over next 40 years in Australia has its impact on the quality of life across the number of dimensions. In order to manage the usage of resources that are being damaged and are at edge of depletion, Australian government is implementing policies and budgets. The purpose to invest in the environmental protection is to create a future in which the upcoming generation can rely on the environment for carrying out the primary economic activities.

The current planning of sustainable environment by Australian Government is based on four pillars namely clean land, clean water, clean air and protecting heritage (Hockey, 2015). This current environment planning is focused towards improving the quality of environment for future generations in Australia. The sections below broadly unravel the current strategy being followed up by Australia to protect its water, air, land and heritage.

1.0      Clean Land

In order to ensure the availability of clean land for future generations, it is important for the government to manage the land effectively through implementation of strategies and laws that can improve the condition of this essential natural resource.

Challenges:

The land resources in Australia are being used for variety of purposes that include agriculture, forestry, gazing nature conservation and the urban development. The mass usage of land for agricultural and pastoral purposes has degraded the water infiltration, soil structure and reduced the nutrients level in the soil. According to ABS, the crop plantation increased from 17.3 million to 26 million hectares during 1992-2010 in order to meet the increasing population challenges (Australian Government, 2010). The rising population has been creating further pressure on land usage for commercial, production and residential purposes. This has put pressure on resource availability that includes land productivity, changing opportunities that includes production cost and market development, policy interventions that includes taxes and subsidies and social changes that includes access to resources and income distribution (Dodson, Sipe, & Byrne, 2015).

Current Strategy:

Australian Government has been planning to improve its capacity by tracking down the land usage and by extracting the information. The recent step taken by Australian Government for establishing a national plan for environmental information will further enhance the reporting system on land use and promote its tracking. Another step has been taken by ABS to introduce land and water accounting that will help in reporting the land usage. There have been much improvements in land management in Australia recently for ensuring the protection and efficient productive capacity of the pastoral and agricultural land for future generations (Hockey, 2015). More than $2 billion has been set out by Government to engage communities and individuals for exploiting the local knowledge. A national land care programme, based on three main value of simple, local and long-term, has been initiated for supporting action in natural resource management. Moreover, Government has also set up a Green Army to work alongside with the Landcare programme for tackling weed, restoring and linking habitats, tackle animal threats and manage fire regimes as well as protecting wildlife (Hockey, 2015).

2.0      Clean Air

Due to misuse of quality standards, the deadly air pollution has emerged as the foremost problem in Australia. Though, according to international standards, the air quality in Australia is rated as “good” but increasing industrial processes and more usage of motor vehicles has pushed up the air pollution rate in Australia (Australian Government, 2012).

Challenges:

Particulation and increased ozone pollution has been emerged as a growing concern globally especially in developed and industrialized countries like Australia. The increasing urbanization and exponential population growth has added to the ever growing problems of air pollution. According to the report by OECD, Australia has clearly failed to stop the dangerous rise in air pollution which has resulted in billions of economic cost (OECD, 2014). The deaths from air pollution rose from 882 to 1483 during 2005-2010 as shown in the figure below.

 

Figure 2: Deaths in Australia due to Air Pollution

Source: (OECD, 2014)

According to a report by Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, the average annual temperature in Australia will rise to 2.0⁰ C by 2030 and 6.0⁰ C by 2070 (Hockey, 2015).

Current Strategies:

The Government of Australia has initiated a Clean Air Plan that incorporates rules and strategies for addressing climate change challenge and for reducing the air pollution. A national clean air agreement has been signed for achieving the clean air objective by Government of Australia as it provided a groundwork for improvement in the air quality of Australia and also aided in responding to air quality issues (Hockey, 2015). The Government has also been securing the agreement at local and tertiary level for fulfilling the clean air agreement by the end of 2016.