One of the world's largest mining companies has broken ranks with much of the industry to support Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek's stalled push for a national environmental regulator.
The proposed regulator would set clear standards for habitat and wildlife protection and account for the carbon emissions of new projects.
Rio Tinto late on Tuesday lent support to federal government legislation that would prioritise and reform 25-year-old environmental laws that better protect "Australia's national environmental and culturally significant places and species" while allowing for "more efficient and effective approvals".
Labor's planned laws are currently stuck in the Senate, wedged between Greens demands for a so-called "climate trigger" and a concerted campaign in recent months by large parts of the resources industry, particularly in Western Australia, against creation of a strong independent watchdog and approvals regulator.
Rio Tinto appears to have backed the Albanese government's push for a compromise that recognises the need to establish new environmental standards while offering a win for environmentalists led by the Greens that would ensure "transparent disclosure of project climate emissions".
The mining giant's statement mirrors calls from renewables developers for better and clearer environmental approvals regulations, as well as the Australian Industry Group that last week urged parliament to pull the laws "back from the brink" of failure.
Labor listed its Environmental Protection and Biodiversity reform legislation for a vote in the Senate last week, but ran out of time. It is expected to be put before the chamber, where Labor does not hold a majority, when parliament resumes next month.
"Rio Tinto supports the Australian government prioritising and progressing reforms to the EPBC Act, given the urgency of finding solutions to nature loss and the impact of climate change," the company said in a statement.
"We are committed to working constructively with government, First Nations peoples, civil society and other stakeholders to achieve these outcomes and delivering reforms which are workable and sustainable for the long term."
In particular, Rio Tinto called for creation of "strong national environmental standards that establish shared goals for nature, provide clear assessment criteria and underpin accreditation of related regulatory processes".
It said the laws need to establish "strengthened and independent compliance and enforcement powers, with appropriate governance and guardrails for their use".
In an apparent effort to bridge the gap with the Greens and environmentalists demanding the legislation include explicit mechanisms to block high emitting projects, Rio said it "acknowledges the interdependencies between nature and climate".
However, it warned that the legislation is ultimately about spurring investment in minerals projects that are critical to decarbonisation technology.
"Policy settings on climate must balance the need for permitting efficiency that is essential for projects including those that decarbonise our operations or provide the metals and materials required for the energy transition, and support local communities and jobs in regions where we operate," the company said.
Rio said it would work with the government on how to support the federal government's next national target on emissions reduction.
The mining company's intervention was welcomed by the Australian Climate and Biodiversity Foundation (ACBF), an advocacy group chaired by former Treasury secretary Ken Henry.
"There is deep support for reform of Australia's environment laws from some of Australia's largest companies that are the biggest users of the environmental assessment and approval provisions of the existing national environment laws and there is genuine support for the creation of strong new national environmental standards," ACBF executive director Lyndon Schneiders said.
"Environmental standards were the centrepiece of the wide-ranging reforms recommended by Professor Graeme Samuel in his independent review of the laws in 2019.
"The opportunity exists for political parties to work together to strengthen and pass the Nature Positive bills presently before the Australian Senate, including providing a legislative basis for the making of National Environment Standards that can be good for the environment and good for the economy," Mr Schneiders said.
Last week, Ai Group chief executive said the nature laws are desperately needed to make it easier to build infrastructure, energy projects, industrial sites and mines that "will enable a prosperous and clean economy".
"The status quo is slowing down major projects just when we are racing against time to bolster our electricity supply before old coal generators retire and to stake our claim in growing markets for critical minerals," he said.
"Policy makers should not let the opportunity to improve this situation slip away.
"Throwing money at the current approvals process, as the last Federal Budget did, will help the wheels turn a bit faster. But the long term benefits would be much larger if we also fix the underlying duplication and provide more ways to say 'yes' to the projects we need."