Energy and infrastructure developments often involve or traverse extensive tracts of land that are frequently covered with stands of native vegetation, providing habitat to a range of different plant and animal species. The biodiversity (biological diversity) contained in these stands is the subject of several pieces of legislation in Australia that place restrictions and conditions on those whose activities interfere with this biodiversity. Social licence to operate is another motivation for development organisations to tread softly when it comes to preparing for activities within these zones. With sound and early planning, much interference can be prevented, but sometimes it is unavoidable and measures will need to be developed to address the resulting impacts.
Offsetting is one form of measure available to conserve biodiversity when all other options fail, although it can also be used in addition to other measures. Offsetting allows for actions to be taken by developers to compensate for adverse impacts of their developments. Several policies have been released outlining State and Commonwealth positions on biodiversity offsetting in the last few years. When seeking approvals, energy and infrastructure development organisations need to plan ahead according to these policies.
To this purpose, this paper outlines the various policy frameworks that exist for biodiversity offsetting across Australia. Implications for the oil and gas industry are provided. The industry has several characteristics that allow it to take advantage of the new policies, which are discussed. Among these are the ready access to land for offsets and, in the case of the coal seam gas industry, the availability of water to kick-start the creation or restoration of biodiversity on land that was previously cleared.
Design of a system for fastening the pipelines’ elements to be brazed of an automated gas metering unit
