Actions
In addition to recommendations made to assist the ACT Government in making strategic and practical decisions, the report also proposes specific actions to improve environmental outcomes.
Climate change
Investigate and implement measures to reduce transport emissions.
Increase living infrastructure to mitigate the impacts of climate change in urban areas.
Improve knowledge of the impacts of climate change across urban and natural environments to inform strategies on climate adaptation and resilience.
Assess and monitor carbon stocks and investigate opportunities to increase carbon sequestration in natural ecosystems and urban environments.
Human settlements
promote and support sustainable household consumption to further decrease the ACT’s ecological footprint.
encourage the development and uptake of distributed energy storage and microgrid technology in domestic, commercial and government buildings and infrastructure to ensure energy supply is sufficient to meet the likely increased demands of the ACT’s growing population and periods of high usage due to climate change.
develop strategies to move toward a circular economy to improve waste recovery rates and reduce resource consumption and waste to landfill.
develop strategies to improve the uptake of public transport and active travel, including increasing cycling participation across gender and age groups.
provide incentives to encourage the purchase of electric and hybrid vehicles, and reduce the purchase of diesel powered vehicles.
identify opportunities to develop water–sensitive urban design across new and existing urban areas. This urban design should incorporate integrated water cycle management to enable the capture and use of stormwater, and create habitat for ACT’s biodiversity.
increase wastewater recycling and use across the ACT for non-potable water needs.
Air
continue to promote the replacement of wood heaters, particularly in the Tuggeranong Valley.
increase the community’s uptake of public and active transport to reduce private vehicle emissions.
increase the number of National Environment Protection (Ambient Air Quality) Measure compliant air quality monitoring stations to improve the assessment of localised air pollution issues.
improve knowledge of the impacts of air pollution on human health and associated costs to the health system and economy.
undertake an assessment of air pollutant emissions from diffuse sources to update the National Pollutant Inventory data from 1999.
Land
improve knowledge on land use change in the ACT. This could be achieved through the development of annual land accounts using the United Nations System of Environmental-Economic Accounting framework.
continue to increase the number of medium and high-density dwellings to minimise future growth in the ACT’s urban area.
encourage and provide opportunities for further increases in urban residential infill developments.
ensure current and future greenfield developments incorporate actions to minimise impacts on natural ecosystems and biodiversity.
improve knowledge on land and soil health to address this critical data gap in environmental condition assessments.
Biodiversity
increase the protection of mature and hollow-bearing trees to maintain critical habitat.
continue monitoring to evaluate the effectiveness of environmental offset conservation outcomes and the condition of conservation areas.
increase the representation of the threatened Natural Temperate Grasslands and Yellow Box/ Red Gum Grassy Woodland communities in conservation areas, and improve protection for
all grassland and open forest communities to support threatened species dependent on these ecosystems.
improve knowledge on changes in vegetation extent from land use change and chronic degradation such as dieback.
continue revegetation programs to improve native vegetation extent and connectivity.
improve knowledge on vegetation condition across the ACT.
ensure tolerable fire intervals are considered in prescribed burn decision frameworks.
continue to undertake invasive and pest species management and ongoing control to minimise the impacts of established populations and to eradicate new outbreaks.
improve funding and resourcing for biodiversity management on private land, and provide incentives to rural landholders to protect paddock trees.
improve funding for citizen science groups that significantly contribute to the ACT’s biodiversity knowledge.
Water
identify opportunities to develop water-sensitive urban design measures to reduce the impact of urban land use on aquatic ecosystems.
re-establish riparian vegetation in both urban and rural areas to improve habitat and protect lakes and waterways from pollutant run-off.
establish a government reporting framework for the assessment of aquatic ecosystem health. This should include the selection of key monitoring sites that provide comprehensive coverage of land use types, sub-catchments and ecosystems across the ACT; incorporate work undertaken for the Catchment Health Indicator Program; incorporate all relevant condition parameters; and produce public reports at appropriate intervals to provide meaningful assessments.
produce an annual recreational water quality report that includes monitoring results, investigations into the main sources of pollutants, recommended actions to improve water quality; and assessments of management effectiveness.
increase fish-stocking programs to maintain fish populations in Canberra’s lakes and ponds.
identify opportunities to collaborate with the NSW Government on management activities to improve aquatic ecosystem health upstream and downstream of the ACT, including the management of native and alien fish, re-establishing riparian zones and reducing catchment erosion.
Fire
increase ecological burning to improve the health and biodiversity of native vegetation communities, particularly for grasslands which require more frequent fire.
increase cultural burning opportunities in partnership with Traditional Custodians and Murumbung Rangers.
ensure ecosystem and biodiversity outcomes are considered before conducting fuel reduction burns so that ecologically appropriate burning is undertaken.
in response to increasing fire danger in the ACT, ensure adequate resources are available to reduce the risk of fire impacting on bushfire-prone areas, environmental assets and sensitive ecosystems, and to improve suppression opportunities and effectiveness should a fire occur.