The Australian government spends more money on activities that harm biodiversity than those that protect biodiversity, a new study suggests. Australia is a biodiversity hotspot, home to more than two-thirds of the world’s marsupials and a high rate of endemic species, but the country has suffered significant species extinctions since European arrival. Under Target 18 of the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), Australia’s government agreed to identify spending that harms the country’s plants, animals and fungi by 2025, and reduce it by 2030. However, the government has yet to release such estimates, so a team of researchers did it themselves. “The urgency of the 2030 reform deadline, and the ongoing deterioration of Australia’s environment, made it clear that this work couldn’t wait,” lead author Paul Elton of Australian National University told Mongabay by email. The study analyzed the federal government’s 2022-2023 budget using a method recommended by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). It identified subsidies in the form of payments and tax concessions that may be harmful to biodiversity. Experts and collaborators from the Australian Biodiversity Council then ranked the impacts from those subsidies on biodiversity. The researchers found that between 2022 and 2023, Australia’s government spent A$26.3 billion ($18.6 billion) — or 1.1% of the country’s gross domestic product — on subsidies for activities believed to cause at least a medium level of harm to biodiversity. This stands in sharp contrast with the current spending on biodiversity conservation, estimated by the Biodiversity Council at less than…This article was originally published on Mongabay
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