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On 23 March 2026, Australia’s Senate passed the High Seas Biodiversity Bill. Your support made this possible. This is your win. Thank you. You’ve been with us through the long road and we don’t take that lightly.
The Australian government has finally brought the Global Ocean Treaty into law – this means we are one step closer to creating ocean sanctuaries here at home.
You backed this when a lot of people said it couldn’t happen. Whether you first supported Greenpeace last month or ten years ago, you were part of something historic. That Australia would one day stand up for the 64% of the world’s ocean that belongs to no country, and was protected by almost nothing.
© Greenpeace / BRIDGET FERGUSON
What your support made possible
64%
of the world’s ocean now covered by this historic treaty
20 yrs
of campaigning and supporters like you who never gave up
30%
of oceans to be protected by 2030, the goal your support is driving
What you actually changed
The Global Ocean Treaty is the most significant ocean protection agreement in a generation, and it needed Australia. Not just as a signature. As a force
We have one of the largest ocean territories on earth. When Australia speaks in international negotiations, it matters. When we ratify, we don’t just add our name to a list. We shift what’s possible for ocean governance globally. We make it harder for those who want to mine, overfish and pollute the high seas to do so without consequence.
Before this treaty, less than 1% of the high seas had any protection. That’s the deep blue beyond every country’s border, home to humpback whales, migratory sharks, deep-sea corals, and millions of species we haven’t even named. It was an open frontier. Your support helped change that.
Because of you, the government heard a message it couldn’t ignore: this matters. Your donations, your petitions, your voice, they all added up to something real. The ocean wasn’t forgotten. Thank you for making sure of that.
— Greenpeace Australia Pacific Nature Team
A 20 year journey you helped drive
This win didn’t happen overnight. It took two decades of persistence and supporters who stayed with us through the slow, frustrating, unglamorous work of change.
What comes next?
Formal ratification will be completed in the coming months, but your support hasn’t just helped close a chapter. It’s opened the next one. Here’s what’s now possible because you showed up:
A Tasman Sea sanctuary, now possible
With ratification, Australia can nominate the Lord Howe Rise as one of the world’s first protected areas in international waters. Your support put this on the table.
Ocean COP 1, setting the rules
The first Conference of Parties meets later in 2026. Greenpeace will be there, pushing for the strongest possible protections. Funded by supporters like you.
30×30, the goal you’re helping achieve
Protecting 30% of oceans by 2030 is now within reach. Australia’s ratification is one of the most important steps toward that target.
Wildlife that can’t thank you, but we will
Humpback whales. Blue sharks. Deep-sea corals. Millions of species will have greater protection because you chose to act when it counted.
Today, the ocean belongs to you
Change like this doesn’t happen without people who decide to show up, through the slow years, the small actions, the moments when it was easy to walk away. You were one of those people, and we won’t forget it.
From all of us at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, and from the humpbacks, the sharks, the corals, and the deep-sea creatures who can’t say it themselves: thank you
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Prepared by a coalition of nine Western Australian union, industry, conservation, and community organisations—including UnionsWA, the Conservation Council WA, and the Smart Energy Council—the WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan provides a practical roadmap to transform Western Australia into a clean energy powerhouse while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
Western Australia stands at a pivotal crossroads: lead the global clean energy economy or watch investment, future industries, and secure jobs go elsewhere. The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan outlines a transformative blueprint to harness the state’s world-class solar and wind resources. Discover how legislated renewable targets, green iron manufacturing, and a dedicated regional training strategy can generate tens of thousands of local jobs, lower household bills, and build a resilient, net-zero future for all Western Australians.
WA needs a clear and forward-thinking plan if it is going to become a competitive renewable energy powerhouse and maintain its economic strength through the energy transition.
“Western Australians know a faster renewable energy transition will lower their household expenses and prevent harmful climate pollution. But the community also needs clear direction to ensure this transition will create jobs, lower costs and not cause undue environmental harm.
“Here, sectors representing a broad range of interests have laid the groundwork for those outcomes, clearly outlining what is needed to create a future for WA that is good for the environment, for the climate, for workers and for the economy.
Summary
The WA Clean Energy, Jobs & Industry Plan sets out a strategic roadmap to position Western Australia as a global clean energy superpower while creating thousands of secure local jobs.
The report establishes three overarching goals:
- Creating local employment.
- Maintaining industrial competitiveness.
- Lowering household energy costs
To realize this vision, the framework details actionable measures to follow on from the recent WA Government announcement of a 75% Renewable Energy Target by 2031 for the South West Interconnected System. This includes developing a statewide Renewable Energy Target, coordinating statewide workforce and training pipelines, strategically planning regional infrastructure to safeguard high-value biodiversity and cultural heritage, and ensuring equitable benefit-sharing through household electrification incentives and First Nations equity partnerships. Ultimately, the plan highlights that establishing clear policy and regulatory certainty will unlock lower energy bills, boost power reliability, and secure the state’s global competitiveness in emerging green commodity export markets.
Key Findings
- Statewide Renewable Energy Target and Emissions Reduction Targets: The report calls for a statewide RET and 1.5°C aligned emission reduction targets to remove policy risk, lower capital costs, and attract clean energy investment.
- Transformative Job Creation: Accelerating the transition offers massive employment prospects, including up to 8,800 solar and battery jobs by 2050, as well as 24,000 ongoing and 11,000 construction jobs in a commercial green iron industry.
- Industrial Electrification & Competitiveness: Requiring large gas users to adopt binding electrification timetables and providing concessional financing will protect existing energy-intensive manufacturers from rising energy costs and impending domestic gas shortfalls.
- Green Commodity Export Leadership: Western Australia can build new export markets in green iron, green ammonia, and offshore oil/gas decommissioning by constructing shared common-user infrastructure and setting dedicated Green Commodity Export Targets.
- Coordinated Workforce & Training Pipeline: To address critical skill shortages the plan recommends establishing a WA Clean Energy Jobs Plan 2050, three regional training hubs, and dedicated pathways for female and under-represented apprentices.
- Environmental Safeguards & Community Benefits: Fast-tracked development must be paired with State Planning Policies that avoid high-biodiversity and cultural heritage lands, mandate new data centres to run on additional renewable power, and deliver household electrification rebates and First Nations equity partnerships.
What you can do
WA has an opportunity to lead on sustainable, clean energy and associated industries. You can help by:
- Sending an email to Environment Minister Murray Watt and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, calling on them to reject Browse.
- Sharing this story to help more Australians understand what’s at stake.
- Encouraging your friends and family to take action.
Countries have completed the first “global review” of their progress towards reversing nature loss by 2030 at the COP17 biodiversity talks in Yerevan, Armenia.
The review “notes with deep concern” that, unless action is “rapidly accelerated”, the goal to reverse nature loss and meet a set of 23 targets by 2030 “will not be achieved”.
It “urges” countries to accelerate action, including by “increased ambition in addressing the gaps”.
Much of the discussions in Yerevan focused on how to raise the necessary funds to help developing countries protect nature.
Some major economies pushed to expand the range of nations that are expected to provide finance, with countries agreeing at the end of the two weeks of talks that non-donors that want to contribute can “signal interest” before COP18.
This came after developed countries failed to meet a target to significantly ramp up nature finance over the last few years.
It also came as a landmark fund agreed at COP16 in Colombia to pay communities for the genetic resources derived from nature stands nearly empty two years on.
The Yerevan talks marked the halfway point of the “Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework” (GBF), the “Paris Agreement for nature” first made in 2022 and due to be achieved by 2030.
During the nearly 12-hour-long final plenary, countries voted for Quito, Ecuador, to host the COP18 nature talks, which will be held in 2028.
Countries managed to sign off on all the major negotiation texts, marking a stark contrast to COP16, which ran so far over time that the Colombian presidency lost “quorum”, forcing talks to resume in Rome months later.
Below, Carbon Brief has detailed analysis of all of the key outcomes from COP17.