Climate change and migration in the Pacific: options for Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands

As climate change impacts, particularly rising sea levels, manifest there is a high probability that some island populations will be faced with the need to relocate. This article discusses several discourses around migration options for people affected by climate change impacts in small island developing states. Options currently available to citizens of the Pacific nations of Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands are explored, including the perspective that high levels of customary land tenure in the Pacific are a barrier to permanent movement to other Pacific countries. Migration to Pacific Rim countries such as Australia, New Zealand and the USA is complicated by strict migration eligibility criteria, which often require proof of language abilities and income, and may restrict the number of accompanying dependants. The Compact of Free Association provides visa-free entry to the USA for citizens of the Marshall Islands, but the lack of financial assistance restricts eligibility to those with existing financial resources or family networks that can provide access to capital. The difficulty of directly attributing single weather/climate events to climate change hinders the formulation of a definition of climate change-related migration. This obstacle in turn hinders the establishment of effective visa categories and migration routes for what is likely to become a growing number of people in coming decade

The emergence, formalisation and evolution of biodiversity offset use in Australia

Generally built upon policy aims of 'no net loss' to environmental values, biodiversity offset policies are in place in all Australian states, territories and at the Commonwealth level. The typical aim of a biodiversity offset is to undertake environmental management activities to ameliorate the residual environmental impacts associated with development activities. Most often required as a condition associated with a planning and development approval, biodiversity offset programmes centre the politically compelling promise of balancing the objectives of both environmental conservation and economic growth. Biodiversity offset use is, however, plagued with questions about rigour, uncertainty regarding the ability to recreate or replace ecosystem function, and the time-lag between impacts and benefits. Typically credited as emerging as a formal policy instrument in the 1980s, Australia is considered a leading proponent of the use of biodiversity offsets. Australian biodiversity offset used commenced in the 1990s in an ad hoc, discretionary manner during negotiations between the proponent of a development application and environment and planning officers. Within the context of Australia, biodiversity offset use has been simultaneously described as world-leading, rigorous, and as inadequately resourced and a missed opportunity. The research examining the use of biodiversity offsets on a policy scale, as opposed to focusing on individual projects, rarely examines the longer scope of the totality of biodiversity offset use. A consequence of this lack of research is that the broader political, scientific and social context influencing the emergence, design and evolution of biodiversity offset use is not well understood. Drawing from this gap, this research asks: what are the drivers of the emergence, design and evolution of biodiversity offset use and policy in New South Wales, Queensland and the Commonwealth from ~1990s-2016? This research engages with government policy documents, Freedom of Information requests, and interviews with experts and public servants to determine the drivers behind the emergence, design and evolution of biodiversity offset use in these three jurisdictions. Overarching these case studies is the development of a three-part theoretical model which, unlike traditional theoretical frameworks that consider only single parts of the policy process, applies to all parts of the policy cycle. This includes problem construction, establishment of norms, policy design, introduction, reform and persistence. Noting the gap in the literature, this research argues that a consequence of the deficiency in research mapping the policy process may be that there is little 'policy learning' occurring. The absence of such learning means that there may be the development of new policies built upon the importing of existing policy designs without a critical evaluation of the political context that defined the policy consultation and design, scientific errors in the methodology, and problems of implementation and enforcement. Without understanding the long-term political, social and scientific context that justifies a policy's introduction, design, change, and persistence, it is difficult to understand why a policy may continue even as it struggles to achieve its policy goal. This persistence of biodiversity offset policy designs that include calculation errors, exemptions for certain activities, a lack of transparency and unclear compliance measures may undermine the capacity of the planning and environment regimes to achieve their goals. A consequence is that we see native vegetation and the already fragmented habitat of many protected species continue to be destroyed upon the uncertain promise of a biodiversity offset

An Empirical Evaluation of Environmental Citizen Suits under the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth)

Since the early 1970s, many jurisdictions have broadened legal standing rules to encourage environmental citizen suits and improve compliance with public rights. Although now widely adopted, expanded standing provisions are frequently criticised on the grounds they can give rise to significant social costs. This article sheds light on the costs associated with expanded standing provisions by evaluating the impacts of citizen suits taken under the Australian Government’s principal environmental statute, the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 (Cth). The results suggest the social costs of citizen suit activity under the Act over the period 2000–2015 were negligible. Environmental citizen suits were seldom taken and rarely won; the substantive effects of successful suits were often nullified by subsequent executive action; and the suits generally had negligible or minor effects on project timelines

Outcomes from 10 years of biodiversity offsetting

We quantified net changes to the area and quality of native vegetation after the introduction of biodiversity offsetting in New South Wales, Australia—a policy intended to “prevent broad‐scale clearing of native vegetation unless it improves or maintains environmental values.” Over 10 years, a total of 21,928 ha of native vegetation was approved for clearing under this policy and 83,459 ha was established as biodiversity offsets. We estimated that no net loss in the area of native vegetation under this policy will not occur for 146 years. This is because 82% of the total area offset was obtained by averting losses to existing native vegetation and the rate that these averted losses accrue was over‐estimated in the policy. There were predicted net gains in 10 of the 14 attributes used to assess the quality of habitat. An overall net gain in the quality of habitat was assessed under this policy by substituting habitat attributes that are difficult to restore (e.g. mature trees) with habitat attributes for which restoration is relatively easy (e.g. tree seedlings). Long‐term rates of annual deforestation did not significantly change across the study area after biodiversity offsetting was introduced. Overall, the policy examined here provides no net loss of biodiversity: (i) many generations into the future, which is not consistent with intergenerational equity; and (ii) by substituting different habitat attributes, so gains are not equivalent to losses. We recommend a number of changes to biodiversity offsetting policy to overcome these issues

Delays, stoppages and appeals: An empirical evaluation of the adverse impacts of environmental citizen suits in the New South Wales land and environment court

Environmental impact assessment (EIA) promotes considered and participatory decision-making, which can delay development and, at times, lead to projects being temporarily halted or permanently discontinued. Over the past decade, governments in a number of jurisdictions have proposed ‘streamlining’ reforms to eliminate perceived causes of unnecessary delays and stoppages. A target of these reforms has been environmental citizen suits (ECS): legal or merits-review proceedings initiated by private parties to uphold public environmental rights or interests for predominantly public purposes in order to generate public environmental benefits. This article reports the results of an empirical analysis of delays and stoppages attributable to ECSs in the NSW Land & Environment Court over the period 2008 to 2015. Key findings include: 109 finalised ECSs were identified over the period; 33 of the determined ECSs were successful (broadly defined); in 27 of the 33 successful ECSs, the activity that was the subject of the proceedings was subsequently approved or otherwise allowed to proceed; and the median major project delay caused by ECSs was 4.4 months. The results suggest the claims ECSs significantly hinder economic growth by delaying and stopping development are largely baseless. ECSs were relatively uncommon, rarely stopped development, and rarely caused major project dela

The genetic variability of grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV) in Australia

Abstract Grapevine Pinot gris virus (GPGV; genus Trichovirus in the family Betaflexiviridae) was detected in Australia in 2016, but its impact on the production of nursery material and fruit in Australia is still currently unknown. This study investigated the prevalence and genetic diversity of GPGV in Australia. GPGV was detected by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in a range of rootstock, table and wine grape varieties from New South Wales, South Australia, and Victoria, with 473/2171 (21.8%) samples found to be infected. Genomes of 32 Australian GPGV isolates were sequenced and many of the isolates shared high nucleotide homology. Phylogenetic and haplotype analyses demonstrated that there were four distinct clades amongst the 32 Australian GPGV isolates and that there were likely to have been at least five separate introductions of the virus into Australia. Recombination and haplotype analysis indicate the emergence of new GPGV strains after introduction into Australia. When compared with 168 overseas GPGV isolates, the analyses suggest that the most likely origin of Australian GPGV isolates is from Europe. There was no correlation between specific GPGV genotypes and symptoms such as leaf mottling, leaf deformation, and shoot stunting, which were observed in some vineyards, and the virus was frequently found in symptomless grapevines

Controlling Cu•••Cu distances using halides: (8-phenylthionaphth-1-yl)diphenylphosphine copper halide dimers

In the isomorphous binuclear Cu2X2L2 systems (L = (8-phenylthionaphth-1-yl)diphenylphosphine the Cu center dot center dot center dot Cu separation is reduced as the halide size increases.PostprintPeer reviewe