Biodiversity & Renewables Institute Australia
The challenge
Australia has a narrow window to scale renewable energy to meet our climate targets. At the same time, expectations around biodiversity and environmental outcomes are rising from regulators, investors, communities and conservation organisations.
Across Australia’s renewable energy sector, there is an appetite to deliver projects that are good for both climate and nature. Developers are investing in self-funded research and mitigation strategies, often in good faith and at significant cost. But they are doing so in a system where expectations continue to evolve, shaped by shifting standards and a fragmented and incomplete evidence base on biodiversity impacts.
At its core, this is a coordination challenge. Australia does not lack effort, ambition, research or investment in this space, but the work is siloed. The same ecological surveys are repeated project by project. The same questions are asked slightly differently each time. Data is gathered, analysed within a single project boundary and rarely built upon. In aggregate, the sector is spending heavily without generating the shared scientific foundation that would reduce uncertainty, streamline approvals and deliver better outcomes for nature.
The solution
Wagtail Collective has been working with the renewable energy industry and leading conservation science NGOs to establish the Biodiversity & Renewables Institute Australia (BRIA), a national organisation dedicated to producing the shared science, data and cross-sector relationships needed to ensure Australia’s renewable energy transition accelerates without costing nature in the process.
An independent cross-sector research institute would give Australia the infrastructure needed to share data and aggregate the biodiversity impact evidence base that renewable energy developers, regulators and conservation organisations all need.
Wagtail Collective is currently leading a national co-design process to shape what the Biodiversity & Renewables Institute becomes. We’re bringing together stakeholders to define the organisation’s purpose, governance and project priorities in partnership.
Are you a renewable energy company, researcher, philanthropist or conservation organisation? There’s still time to invest in and shape BRIA from the ground up.
Where we are
Current partners
