The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is seeking feedback on the exposure draft of the National Environmental Standard for Data and Information, a legally enforceable instrument under the reformed EPBC Act that sets requirements for data and information used to make environmental decisions.
It sets legally enforceable requirements to ensure that decisions made under the Act are based on appropriate data and information, and to extend the availability of credible data and information assets for use in such decisions.
The Standard will apply to key decisions, including individual project assessments, strategic assessments, the making of bioregional plans, and bilateral agreements.
Climateworks Centre welcomes the opportunity to provide feedback on the exposure draft.
Robust data and information standards are foundational to effective environmental decision-making, ensuring decisions are grounded in trusted, consistent and scientifically rigorous evidence.
Ultimately, the creation of strong standards allows for shared understanding, builds social acceptance and enables proactive planning in a changing climate.
Summary of recommendations
Climateworks recommends that the Data and Information Standard:
- encourages the use of data relevant to the scale of the assessment
- explicitly addresses data comparability and accessibility over time
- explicitly includes transparency of modelling used, including underlying assumptions
- encourages the use of forward-looking and climate robust data sources.
More detail can be found in our submission [PDF 0.1mb].