The Business Council of Australia welcomes the opportunity to respond to the Environment and Communications Legislation Committee Inquiry into the Nature Repair Market Bill 2023 and Nature Repair Market (Consequential Amendments) Bill 2023.

The BCA supports the establishment of a robust and enduring framework for a voluntary national market that delivers improved biodiversity outcomes.

Australia leads the world in voluntary carbon market development and is equally well positioned to be a leader in emerging biodiversity market development.

The BCA raises four considerations which we believe are critical to Australia being able to make the most of this opportunity.

• Clarity about the broader policy framework — clarity about how this framework is expected to evolve in the context of Australia’s broader environmental legislative framework is very important to being able to attract investors to nature repair markets.
• Learnings from carbon markets — avoiding the potentially disruptive and confidence destroying impacts of changes and challenges to policy frameworks over time is very important to being able to attract investors to nature repair markets.
• Convergence of ecosystem markets — we note that initially at least, the investment in projects that deliver both carbon and biodiversity benefits may be easier to monetise because of the maturity of carbon markets.
• Minimising risks for investors — developing supporting regulations and rules that minimise project risk is vital to stimulating supply and demand side participation.       

Read our full submission here.