Australia

Australia’s framework for green economic transition is anchored in the Climate Change Act 2022, which legislates binding national targets of a 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 (from 2005 levels) and net zero by 2050. The law mandates annual progress reports to Parliament and oversight by the Climate Change Authority. These targets are supported by the Net Zero Plan, a government strategy detailing sectoral decarbonisation pathways across electricity, transport, resources, industry, agriculture, and waste. Complementary frameworks include the Rewiring the Nation Plan (AUD 20 billion) for transmission infrastructure, the National Energy Transformation Partnership (2023), and the Hydrogen Headstart Programme (AUD 2 billion, launched 2023) to accelerate clean-energy industries. Australia also submitted an updated Long-Term Emissions Reduction Strategy (LTS) to the UNFCCC and an enhanced Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in 2022. While these mechanisms create a cohesive climate-economic framework, there is no single, legally defined “green economy plan” encompassing all fiscal, social, and industrial policies under one coordinated structure.

Australia promotes inclusive governance through transparency requirements and participatory strategies. Employers with 100+ staff must report annually to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency (WGEA), and from 2024–25 employer-level gender pay gaps are published. The APS Disability Employment Strategy 2020–25, led by the Australian Public Service Commission, requires government agencies to increase employment of people with disability and embed inclusive workplace practices. In addition, the Collaborative Governance Guide (Collaboration for Impact, supported by Australian government partners) provides a framework for inclusive, multi-stakeholder decision-making across sectors. However, there is no national strategy mandating employee board representation or gender-balanced corporate boards, and inclusive governance standards remain mostly voluntary or sector-specific.

Australia operates formal consultation and impact-assessment processes at the Commonwealth level and across states/territories. For federal rule-making and major policy changes, the Office of Impact Analysis requires an Impact Analysis (formerly RIS) that considers costs, benefits and stakeholder impacts; guidance and compliance reporting are published. Environmental decision-making under the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999 provides statutory public comment windows (typically 10–20 business days) for referrals and assessment documentation, with a public portal listing open consultations and decisions. For First Nations engagement, the Native Title Act 1993 establishes processes and, in specified circumstances, consent requirements (via Prescribed Bodies Corporate) for future acts affecting native title. These mechanisms provide regular avenues for participation, although consultation is not uniformly mandatory for every primary statute and impact assessments focused specifically on all marginalised cohorts are not required in all policy areas.

Australia’s national wellbeing framework, Measuring What Matters, was launched by Treasury in July 2023 and has 50 indicators across five pillars (health, security, sustainability, cohesion, prosperity). In 2024 responsibility for annual dashboard updates moved to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS), which published the 2025 update and maintains the public indicator dashboard. Treasury retains responsibility for embedding the framework in decision-making, and the framework is being integrated progressively alongside traditional macro-fiscal metrics. The ANAO reviewed Treasury’s design and implementation, documenting the consultation process and governance arrangements. Complementary environmental-economic accounts are maintained by the ABS.

The Australian Government is implementing mandatory climate-related financial disclosures for large entities beginning in 2025 and is developing a national sustainable finance taxonomy (interim report, Sept 2024). APRA requires financial institutions to conduct climate risk self-assessments, has run a Climate Vulnerability Assessment for banks, and launched an insurance-sector CVA in 2024. The CEFC continues to mobilise public and private investment into clean energy. However, mandatory, detailed environmental and social stress testing for all financial institutions is not yet codified.

Australia launched its first sovereign green bond (Green Treasury Bonds) in June 2024, with A$7 billion issued (A$9 billion outstanding by 2025), under a regulated Treasury-AOFM Green Bond Framework aligned with ICMA Principles. Australia has moved beyond merely considering stress testing. Mandatory climate-related disclosures started from financial year 2024–25. Treasury Law Amendment Bill requires large firms and financial institutions to report climate risks from Jan 1, 2025.

The Council of Financial Regulators (APRA) will conduct the first cross-industry climate stress test in 2025, to include climate risks. It will cover banks, superannuation, insurers and climate-change risk transmission.

While still voluntary and ad-hoc (yet also an institutionalized framework), Australia is integrating climate risk in fiscal/monetary oversight.

Australia is actively integrating sustainable development priorities into its trade and investment partnerships. It has signed Green Economy Agreements with Singapore and South Korea, which include cooperation on clean hydrogen, renewable energy trade, and harmonization of standards. These agreements aim to reduce non-tariff barriers and promote interoperability of green taxonomies and carbon pricing regimes. Australia also participates in the Indo-Pacific Economic Framework, which includes environmental and clean economy pillars. While investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) reform is not yet central, Australia’s approach reflects a growing commitment to aligning trade with climate goals.

Australia’s Safeguard Mechanism, reformed in 2023, applies to facilities emitting >100,000 tCO₂-e/year with declining baselines of ~4.9% per year until 2030. Covered entities must abate or offset emissions using credits such as ACCUs. In September 2025, the government legislated a national 2035 target of 62–70% below 2005 levels, guided by Climate Change Authority advice. While these instruments create sectoral carbon constraints, Australia does not operate a national carbon tax or ETS, and emissions budgets remain advisory.

Australia shows growing green sectoral planning: the 2024 National Hydrogen Strategy outlines 34 actions to scale clean hydrogen (supply, demand, community, trade); the government is crafting a Net Zero Plan with six sectoral emissions pathways (electricity, transport, industry, agriculture, resources, built environment); and the creation of the Net Zero Economy Authority (estimated on Dec 2024) to coordinate transition efforts across sectors. Additionally, the industrial policy initiative 'Future Made in Australia' invests in green industrial sectors (hydrogen, batteries, critical minerals). However, sector ambition and integration are uneven, strategies in key sectors like transport and agriculture are underdeveloped, and real coordination mechanisms are quite incipient. Overall, Australia still lacks fully integrated implementation across all sectors and a single empowered body overseeing low-carbon transition.

Australia has adopted a comprehensive National Circular Economy Framework, released by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) in December 2024. The framework sets a national ambition to double circularity by 2035, with supporting targets to reduce material footprint by 10%, increase material productivity by 30%, and recover 80% of resources. It focuses on four priority sectors: industry, built environment, agriculture and food, and resources. The framework provides actionable pathways for businesses and policymakers, aligning regulations and funding with circular economy goals.

Australia has adopted a comprehensive National Circular Economy Framework, released by the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) in December 2024. The framework sets a national ambition to double circularity by 2035, with supporting targets to reduce material footprint by 10%, increase material productivity by 30%, and recover 80% of resources. It focuses on four priority sectors: industry, built environment, agriculture and food, and resources. The framework provides actionable pathways for businesses and policymakers, aligning regulations and funding with circular economy goals.

Australia now has a solid federal renewable energy target (82% electricity by 2030), backed by coherent, long-term support mechanisms and implementation frameworks (supported by AEMO’s Integrated System Plan and the expanded Capacity Investment Scheme). While federal-level frameworks for energy efficiency and emissions reduction remain under development, the plan is reinforced by strong federal funding through the Future Made in Australia program and other investments from ARENA and CEFC (e.g., A$19 B ‘Rewiring the Nation’ fund, Solar Sunshot, Battery Breakthrough, Powering Australia Technology Fund). Current projections show 82% is achievable if transmission and storage challenges are addressed. State targets—such as Victoria’s 65% by 2030 and 95% by 2035 and Queensland’s 70% by 2032—further complement this federal ambition.

Australia is now actively integrating workforce and industrial green transition into national policy. The National Energy Workforce Strategy (2023) outlines skill development pathways for energy infrastructure and clean technologies. Future Made in Australia investments, the ‘Solar Sunshot’ fund, battery manufacturing incentives, green aluminium and green iron support lines, and hydrogen clusters, are projected to create tens of thousands of jobs across renewable and critical-mineral supply chains. Savanna-burning emissions projects provide cultural and economic employment for Aboriginal communities. However, national-level green job planning still lacks a coherent, inclusive strategy for worker transitions from carbon-intensive sectors.

The Net Zero Economy Authority Act 2024 established a national body to coordinate an orderly, people-centred transition, including support for workers and regions affected by industrial decarbonisation and coal-power closures. The Authority works with other departments to deliver Regional Workforce Transition Plans (e.g., Hunter, Latrobe Valley, Collie, Central Queensland), mapping skills, training pathways and local industry opportunities. Funding programs anchored in industrial decarbonisation include the Powering the Regions Fund (with a $600m Safeguard Transformation Stream for trade-exposed facilities and a $400m Industrial Transformation Stream delivered by ARENA) to help heavy industry cut emissions and invest in new processes. These measures sit alongside national energy-market instruments that drive investment in low-emissions capacity.

Australia supports MSMEs through targeted energy-efficiency grants (Energy Efficiency Grants for SMEs, 2024–25) and tax deductions (Small Business Energy Incentive). The ARENA Solar Sunshot initiative (2023–25) provides funding to accelerate Australian solar manufacturing and supply chains, with opportunities for SMEs in technology and services. Broader schemes such as the Powering the Regions Fund focus mainly on large industrial facilities but indirectly benefit SME suppliers. Despite these measures, there is no federal legal form for social enterprises, and green MSME support remains fragmented rather than systematic.

Australia hosts a range of innovative social protection policy pilots (such as social benefit bonds and Indigenous employment schemes), but lacks a cohesive national strategy linking social protection with green economic transformation. Key examples include: the Newpin Social Benefit Bond (NSW), the Resilient Families programs in South Australia targeting homelessness, community conservation programs like Conservation Volunteers’ Green Army; and Indigenous savanna-burning projects creating 300 regional jobs. The country demonstrates experimentation and interest in social and environmental inclusion, yet the initiatives lack a unified green‑economy orientation and federal-level coordination.

Australia’s Strategy for Nature 2024–2030 is the updated National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan aligned with the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework. It sets national targets to tackle key drivers of biodiversity loss, identifies three “enablers of change,” and provides a monitoring and reporting architecture endorsed by all jurisdictions. Implementation interfaces with the Commonwealth’s environmental law (Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999) and ongoing reforms under the “Nature Positive” agenda. SDG 14 and 15 priorities are referenced and integrated through national targets, and federal publications provide periodic progress reporting and guidance materials.

Australia is a leading adopter of SEEA-based accounts. The ABS released the National Land Cover Account (2024 reference period) in September 2025 and experimental National Ecosystem Accounts in February 2025, providing consistent, spatially disaggregated data. DCCEEW maintains a Natural Capital Accounts program and dashboard to embed accounts into policy. However, there is no statutory, independent advisory body specifically mandated to review budgets and infrastructure decisions for natural capital impacts.

Australia is currently developing a national food systems strategy titled Feeding Australia: A National Food Security Strategy, with a discussion paper released in August 2025. The strategy aims to enhance the productivity, resilience, and sustainability of the food system, aligning with SDGs 2 and 12. It includes plans for a National Food Council, which will guide implementation and ensure cross-sector coordination. The strategy addresses climate resilience, supply chain disruptions, and healthy diets, and is expected to include long-term targets for ecological footprint reduction and waste minimization.

Australia legislated a voluntary biodiversity credit scheme via the Nature Repair Act 2023, creating a national certification and trading framework for “biodiversity certificates” and enabling private investment into accredited nature-repair projects (administered with supporting rules and methodologies). The government established a Nature Finance Council in December 2023 to advise on mobilising private capital for nature and published materials on “investing in nature,” including work to connect public policy settings and markets. The Clean Energy Regulator provides scheme-administration information for project proponents and buyers. In parallel, the Treasury’s Sustainable Finance Roadmap (2024) references nature-related data, the Council’s role, and sovereign green bonds that can finance nature-positive activities. Broader tax/subsidy reform to remove harmful incentives and dedicated, large-scale public finance streams to Indigenous land and sea management continue to evolve.

During the COVID-19 shock (2020–2021), Australia’s economic stabilisation focused on broad income and business support (e.g., the JobKeeper wage-subsidy program and other fiscal measures). Independent assessments and official reporting describe these as economy-wide supports rather than green-conditional stimulus. Subsequent climate-related investments—such as the Capacity Investment Scheme for renewables and storage, Rewiring the Nation transmission finance, Hydrogen Headstart, and industrial decarbonisation funds—are part of medium-term economic and industry policy rather than time-bound recovery packages with environmental conditionality. As a result, green measures were not a central, conditional component of the original pandemic recovery toolkit, although later programs contribute to structural decarbonisation.