Ecological dimensions of the chosen global economic activity, including resource use, environmental impacts, and management responses

What this dot point is asking

Every global economic activity has ecological dimensions: the biophysical resources it consumes, the environmental impacts it produces at local-to-global scales, and the corporate or regulatory responses to manage those impacts. NESA asks about ecological dimensions in both Section II and Section III. Strong responses are quantitative (tonnes, hectares, Mt CO2) and span multiple scales.

Resource use

Each economic activity has a characteristic resource intensity. For iron ore mining and steelmaking:

• Land. Active mining footprint is small relative to global land area (Australia's iron ore mines occupy around 30,000-100,000 ha at any time) but locally severe.
• Water. Around 35-50 m3 per tonne of crude steel, mostly for cooling and process. Mining itself uses 25-30 GL per year in the Pilbara.
• Energy. Around 19-21 GJ per tonne of crude steel (mostly coal-derived in the blast furnace process). Mining itself uses around 1 GJ per tonne ore.
• Materials. Coking coal, limestone (flux), oxygen, iron ore as feed.

For Australian wine:

• Land. 145,000 ha vineyard, plus winery and bottling facilities.
• Water. Around 200-400 mm/year irrigation in most regions (above natural rainfall); around 500-800 L of water per litre of wine across the full life cycle.
• Energy. Around 0.5-1 kWh per litre of wine for cooling, pumping, bottling.

Environmental impacts at multiple scales

Local

• Habitat loss and biodiversity reduction at production sites.
• Water table drawdown affecting neighbouring ecosystems and farms.
• Dust and noise affecting nearby communities.
• Acid mine drainage, mine pit lakes, contaminated stormwater.
• Pesticide and herbicide use in agriculture.

Regional

• Sediment loads in rivers (the Great Barrier Reef receives 14 Mt of sediment annually, 6 times pre-clearing rates, largely from sugarcane and beef agriculture).
• Algal blooms from nutrient runoff (Murray-Darling, Hawkesbury).
• Atmospheric pollution and smog.
• Cumulative land-use change altering regional hydrology.

Global

• Greenhouse gas emissions driving climate change.
• Ocean acidification and warming (driven by atmospheric CO2).
• Plastic and microplastic pollution.
• Biodiversity loss from habitat conversion in agricultural and resource frontiers.

Scope 1, 2, 3

Modern emissions accounting (GHG Protocol) divides corporate emissions into three scopes:

• Scope 1. Direct emissions from owned operations (diesel for trucks, gas for processing).
• Scope 2. Emissions from purchased electricity and heat.
• Scope 3. Emissions from upstream (suppliers) and downstream (customer use) of the company's products.

For most resource and consumer-goods companies, Scope 3 dwarfs Scopes 1 and 2. BHP's iron ore Scope 3 emissions (from customer steelmaking) are around 380 Mt CO2-equivalent per year, against Scope 1-2 of around 8.5 Mt. The strategic question for companies is whether to take responsibility for Scope 3, given they do not directly control customer operations.

Management responses

Regulatory

• Australian Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act (1999). The federal regime for environmental assessment and approval.
• State EPA regimes. NSW EPA, Victoria EPA, WA Department of Water and Environmental Regulation.
• Mining Act regimes by state, including mine closure and rehabilitation bonds.
• Water Act regimes governing extraction (Murray-Darling Basin Plan 2012, Water Sharing Plans in NSW).
• Climate Change Act (2022). Sets 43 percent reduction by 2030 and net zero by 2050 nationally.
• Safeguard Mechanism (2023 reforms). Australian large emitters (215 facilities) must reduce baseline emissions by 4.9 percent per year to 2030.

Voluntary disclosure

• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Standard framework for climate risk disclosure adopted by most large listed companies.
• International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) IFRS S2. Mandatory climate disclosure for Australian large companies from 2025.
• Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). ESG reporting standard.

Corporate strategies

• Decarbonisation roadmaps. BHP, Rio Tinto, Fortescue have published net-zero pathways with sector-specific milestones.
• Renewable power purchase agreements. BHP signed a 700 MW renewable PPA with TransAlta in 2021 for its Pilbara operations.
• Hydrogen and electrification. Hydrogen direct-reduction iron (HBI) is the long-term green steel pathway. Fortescue is building one of the first commercial green hydrogen plants.
• Circular economy. Recycling, materials substitution, product design for longevity.
• Net-zero supply chains. Lead firms pressuring suppliers to decarbonise (Apple's 2030 carbon-neutral supply chain commitment).

Stakeholder pressure

• Investor pressure. Climate Action 100+, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change.
• Customer pressure. Steel buyers requesting green steel; airlines requesting sustainable aviation fuel.
• Litigation. Climate cases including the Sharma vs Minister for the Environment case (federal court, Australia) on duty of care; Bushfire Survivors for Climate Action vs EPA (NSW).
• Civil society. Climate strikes, divestment campaigns, ESG ratings agencies (MSCI, Sustainalytics).

How effective is the response

A judgment is required in HSC essays. Honest assessment as of 2026:

• Progress. Many lead firms have set targets and are making operational reductions. Mandatory climate disclosure has improved transparency. Renewable energy has reached cost-competitive parity in most markets.
• Gaps. Scope 3 emissions remain largely unaddressed. Net-zero targets often rely on offsets of varying integrity. Capital is flowing toward green infrastructure but at insufficient scale (IEA estimates US$5 trillion per year needed by 2030, against around US$1.7 trillion in 2023).
• Speed. The IPCC requires emissions to peak by 2025 and halve by 2030 to stay within 1.5 degrees C. Current trajectories suggest 2.4-2.8 degrees C of warming by 2100.

Net assessment in HSC essays: management responses are real and accelerating, but inadequate to the scale of the ecological challenge. The next decade is critical.