Attempts to meet environmental ambitions have been hindered by continuing and incentivised activities negatively impacting nature, a high-ranking former public servant says.
Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation chair Ken Henry says economies and the systems supporting them must be re-evaluated and restructured to meet the challenges of a changing natural environment.
That involved questioning why current systems rewarded and incentivised environmental destruction when the ambition was to restore it, he said.
“We’re all suffering an extreme form of cognitive dissonance,” Dr Henry told AAP.
Australia celebrates being a natural resources superpower, digging up coal and extracting gas to ship overseas.
“We refuse to see a connection between that and the climate change-induced nature destruction that we’re experiencing,” Dr Henry said.
“We don’t account for it, we don’t consider ourselves responsible for those carbon emissions … surely we’re capable of seeing that one thing is contributing to the other, but we don’t,” he said.
Thousands of hectares of land were still being cleared for agriculture and via logging each year, particularly in NSW and Queensland, he said.
The former treasury secretary and ex-chair of the National Australia Bank spoke to AAP ahead of the Global Nature Positive Summit in Sydney on Tuesday.
He will be part of a panel discussing the urgency of transforming economic systems to value nature.
The three-day event will explore effective ways to address biodiversity loss and examine the changes required.
It is also a show of commitment towards previously agreed goals adopted during the United Nations Biodiversity Conference in 2022.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek will deliver an address on Tuesday morning, followed by NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey.
Panels will focus on embedding environmental goals in corporate strategy, sustainable land management and restoration in agriculture, and more environmentally friendly construction and planning to enhance urban biodiversity.
Dr Henry said systems had evolved to recognise financial exposure to climate-related risks, but businesses and industries also needed to understand their contribution.
“That’s the second leg of it, which is proving more difficult for a number of reasons … but it has to happen,” he said.
Dr Henry was made a Companion in the Order of Australia in 2007 for service in the development of economic and taxation policy, as well as to the community for the care of native wildlife.
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