National Environmental Condition Score sees significant increase in 2021

Cooler weather conditions helped the World Heritage Listed site avoid another bleaching event last year despite global ocean heat increasing considerably, Australia's Environment 2021 report found.

La Nina's rainfall and cooler temperatures contributed to recovery of Australia's key environmental indicators, with widespread improvements unseen for several years.

The National Environmental Condition Score went from a three out of 10 in 2020 to a 6.9 out of 10 last year, with progress made in all states and territories.

Data for the annual report, led by the Australian National University researchers, was gathered from various satellite and ground-based sources and run through a supercomputer algorithm to determine what's happening nationally.

The report found rainfall was near or above average across the entire country in 2021, with an average rainfall of 542 millimetres, the highest national average since 2016.

Increased rain led to national river inflow increases, with 115 mm inflow in 2021, which was 29 per cent above the 2000-2020 average and 75 per cent more than the previous year.

Murray-Darling storage improved with the extra rain, its five largest storages increasing from 57 per cent to 90 per cent capacity, reaching levels last seen in 2013.

Urban water supplies increased for all cities too, with Canberra and Sydney supply systems remaining near full capacity, while storage increased in Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide.

Australia's carbon emissions decreased by almost two per cent, contributing 1.4 per cent to global emissions in 2021, compared to 1.5 per cent in 2020.

Despite progress, Australia continued to rate poorly compared to other nations in terms of individual energy use, with a continued reliance on fossil fuels contributing to 1.4 per cent of global emissions in 2021.

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Biodiversity continued to decline too with another 34 species added to the Threatened Species List in 2021. The dismal finding represented a 2.3 per cent increase from the previous year and a 39 per cent increase since 2000.

Lead author of the report Professor Albert van Dijk said a global response similar to the one taken to combat the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine was needed to prevent the environmental crisis from worsening.

"Decisive action to actively reduce global carbon emissions and improve ecosystem management can avoid these impacts from becoming worse than they have to be," he said.

"Both are entirely within our reach, but only if the necessary action is taken."

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