The Chamber of Minerals and Energy of Western Australia (CME) welcomed today’s launch of the State’s Environmental Offsets Register.
“This new register will provide a single publically available access point for information on the application and delivery of environmental offsets committed to in the State,” said Chief Executive Reg Howard-Smith.
Over the past decade, environmental offsets have increasingly been employed as a mechanism for achieving environmental benefits in the granting of approval for resource sector projects.
Industry believes that rehabilitation is the key priority and environmental offsets should only be considered once all other avoidance and mitigation measures have been exhausted.
“The development and management of environmental initiatives can be many millions of dollars for individual companies and add to the overall cost of doing business in Western Australia,” said Mr Howard-Smith.
“It is essential initiatives created through the offsets process are achieving cost effective environmental benefits that are both clear and transparent,” said Mr Howard-Smith.
“Following the successful launch of the register, CME encourages government to expand the register scope to include retrospective resource project offset information,” said Mr Howard-Smith.
During the election campaign industry welcomed the announcement of the expansion of the Department of Mines and Petroleum’s approvals tracking system into other agencies and the development of a publically available online biodiversity library,” said Mr Howard-Smith.
“While disappointed to not see funding in the Budget last week, CME understand the Government remains committed to the introduction of these initiatives and looks forward to full implementation,” said Mr Howard-Smith
“The development of these initiatives will greatly assist in delivering more efficient and cost effective approvals at the same time adding to the State’s scientific knowledge,” said Mr Howard-Smith.
