Elton - Governments investing in nature - SF2 - Methods

This research methods report is Supplementary File 2 accompanying the peer-reviewed journal article by Elton et al., "Governments investing in nature: cost-sharing and the benefits of public investment in biodiversity conservation" (under review). It provides the extended methodological documentation supporting the analysis reported in the article, and should be read alongside the cost-sharing and benefits model (Supplementary File 1), which is the analytical tool in which the calculations are performed. The report is organised in two parts. The first documents the estimation of the uplift in public funding needed to achieve the GBF's goals and targets in Australia: the derivation of extant public, private, and philanthropic biodiversity expenditure from government budget papers, departmental annual reports, and sector datasets; the three interpretive frames — constitutional foundations, international accountability, and fiscal and practical realities — from which the cost-sharing model is constructed; the allocation of primary funding responsibility for each GBF target between the Australian Government and the state and territory governments; and a four-step derivation of the funding shortfall and jurisdictional uplift, illustrated by a worked example, together with an assessment of the uncertainty attaching to those estimates. The second part documents the benefits analysis: the estimation of carbon sequestration potential from biodiverse restoration of degraded ecosystems, including the spatial data layers, biomass and carbon conversion factors, restoration and temporal assumptions, and carbon-price scenarios applied; and the direct-effects input–output method used to estimate the jobs, household income, and gross domestic product supported by recurrent biodiversity expenditure, including the derivation of industry-division intensity coefficients from Australian Bureau of Statistics input–output and labour account data. The report was prepared by Paul Elton, PhD Candidate, ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society (July 2026).
Type
collection
Title
Elton - Governments investing in nature - SF2 - Methods
Collection Type
Collection
Access Privileges
Fenner School of Environment & Society
DOI - Digital Object Identifier
10.25911/xzcc-fv98
Metadata Language
English
Data Language
English
Brief Description
This research methods report is Supplementary File 2 accompanying the peer-reviewed journal article by Elton et al., "Governments investing in nature: cost-sharing and the benefits of public investment in biodiversity conservation" (under review). It documents the methods, data sources, and assumptions underlying the study's estimates of the uplift in public funding required from each of Australia's nine governments to deliver the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), and of the benefits that investment would generate.
Full Description
This research methods report is Supplementary File 2 accompanying the peer-reviewed journal article by Elton et al., "Governments investing in nature: cost-sharing and the benefits of public investment in biodiversity conservation" (under review). It provides the extended methodological documentation supporting the analysis reported in the article, and should be read alongside the cost-sharing and benefits model (Supplementary File 1), which is the analytical tool in which the calculations are performed. The report is organised in two parts. The first documents the estimation of the uplift in public funding needed to achieve the GBF's goals and targets in Australia: the derivation of extant public, private, and philanthropic biodiversity expenditure from government budget papers, departmental annual reports, and sector datasets; the three interpretive frames — constitutional foundations, international accountability, and fiscal and practical realities — from which the cost-sharing model is constructed; the allocation of primary funding responsibility for each GBF target between the Australian Government and the state and territory governments; and a four-step derivation of the funding shortfall and jurisdictional uplift, illustrated by a worked example, together with an assessment of the uncertainty attaching to those estimates. The second part documents the benefits analysis: the estimation of carbon sequestration potential from biodiverse restoration of degraded ecosystems, including the spatial data layers, biomass and carbon conversion factors, restoration and temporal assumptions, and carbon-price scenarios applied; and the direct-effects input–output method used to estimate the jobs, household income, and gross domestic product supported by recurrent biodiversity expenditure, including the derivation of industry-division intensity coefficients from Australian Bureau of Statistics input–output and labour account data. The report was prepared by Paul Elton, PhD Candidate, ANU Fenner School of Environment and Society (July 2026).
Contact Email
paul.elton@anu.edu.au
Contact Address
The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Contact Phone Number
0408213508
Principal Investigator
Paul Elton
Supervisors
Sarah Clement
Fields of Research
460105 - Applications in social sciences and education
Socio-Economic Objective
1902 - Environmental policy, legislation and standards
Keywords
Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF), biodiversity finance, public funding, cost-sharing, federalism, environmental policy, Australia
Type of Research Activity
Applied Research
Date Coverage
2026
2026
Geospatial Location
Australia
Date of data creation
2026
Year of data publication
2026
Creator(s) for Citation
Paul
Elton
Publisher for Citation
The Australian National University Data Commons
Access Rights
Open Access Allowed
Access Rights Type
Open
Licence Type
CC-BY - Attribution
Retention Period
Indefinitely
Extent or Quantity
1
Data Size
1.57MB
Data Management Plan
No

Download data files

Number of files: 1

Size: 1.57 MB

Identifier: anudc:6496

Status: Published
Published to:
  • Australian National University
  • Australian National Data Service
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