There has been a critical decline in Australia's capability to monitor environmental changes. Experts say there is now a need for a new, national approach to form the basis of our ability to crucially adapt to immediate climate change impacts, while also opening opportunities for better, innovative science.

With the dust settled on the national election, and more recently the 2020 summit, Ecos asked five commentators for their top priorities in terms of a national sustainability agenda.

Both environmental organisations and the indigenous Australians who call Cape York home are fighting to preserve it. But with a disagreement simmering on how to protect the region's rivers, can a new foundation led by young Aboriginal leaders from the area help find the middle ground?

As urban density increases, green roof and wall technology is evolving fast. It provides a way to replace vegetation lost on the ground as well as a host of energy, water management and aesthetic benefits.

The coal-fired electricity grid is hugely inefficient. Distributed electricity networks, on the other hand, are coming, linking each home or building as a lean power station, and helping to curb Australia's greenhouse emissions.

Over 200 heads of industry and sustainability-focused organisations met at Parliament House in Canberra on the 19th and 20th of May to push forward discussion on how business and government can urgently re-calibrate to the evolving risks – and opportunities – of climate change.

Ecosystem services are the foundation of sustainable development; without them we'd have no food, shelter or wilderness 'escapes'. As Drs Anna Straton and Leonie Pearson explain, we need to better understand them, and how they contribute to our well-being, in order to achieve more sustainable progress.

Australian forestry science is assisting in a new and tactical approach to saving precious Malaysian rainforest.