Australia's environment ministers are set to meet for the first time in more than a year, with a pledge to safeguard more of the country's land and waters on the agenda.
On Friday, federal, state and territory ministers will meet for the first time since the Albanese government took office and they are due to discuss a commitment to protect 30 per cent of Australia's land and oceans.
Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek made the "30x30" pledge - part of a global climate protection campaign - earlier this year.
Tweaks to environmental protection laws will also be on the agenda, with Ms Plibersek recently telling the National Press Club current legislation was failing.
She flagged reform of national environment laws and the introduction of a new Environment Protection Agency to enforce them.
ACT Environment Minister Rebecca Vassarotti called for a strong collaborative response to tackle the climate and biodiversity crises faced across the world.
"I will push for stronger nature protection laws and a truly independent federal Environment Protection Authority to oversee them," she said.
"Strong, binding national environmental standards are the cornerstone of the reforms we need to ensure the (environment act) truly functions to protect our precious wildlife and their habitats."
Ms Vassarotti said she'd advocate strongly for the 30x30 pledge.
The meeting will set the agenda for the national response to environmental challenges including increasing levels of threatened species, large-scale land clearing and more frequent extreme weather events.
A recent state of the environment report found threatened communities had grown by 20 per cent in five years, that the Murray-Darling was at its lowest water level on record in 2019 and Australia has more foreign plants than natives.
The environment ministers haven't met since April 2021, when their priorities included climate resilience, waste recycling and bushfire recovery.
