CANBERRA, April 16 (Xinhua) -- An Australian environmental group has warned political leaders that the country is facing "an unprecedented environmental crisis."
Lyndon Schneiders, national campaigns director for the Wilderness Society, on Monday wrote to Australia's politicians calling for them to make concrete environmental commitments before the general election on May 18.
The Wilderness Society has called for Australia's environmental protection laws to be overhauled and independent regulatory agencies to be established.
Bill Shorten, leader of the Opposition Australian Labor Party (ALP), committed to the plan at the ALP's national conference in December but has not a detailed policy on the issue.
In an attempt to ramp-up pressure on the ALP and incumbent Liberal-National party coalition (LNP), Schneiders wrote in his letter that Australia is on the brink of "an unprecedented environmental crisis" and that "we as a nation have lacked the policy tools and the political will to make a difference."
"(We) will be informing our members and supporters, and voters in key areas, about the environmental policies of parties and candidates," he wrote in the letter, which was published by the Guardian Australia on Tuesday.
"We will be looking at both the commitments themselves, and also whether or not there is a credible pathway proposed to deliver them.
"Our baseline for assessing success is whether or not the policy framework will turn around Australia's environment crisis. This is not the same as assessing whether or not the policies are an improvement on the status quo."
