Address to the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026
The Commissioner underscored the importance of communicating environmental complexity effectively in his address to the Capital City Complex Systems Symposium 2026.
He noted that while complex systems underpin all environmental challenges, describing issues simply as “complex” risks alienating the very people who must act on them. Clear communication, he said, is essential for helping both the public and decision‑makers understand how environmental systems behave and why responses must take uncertainty, feedback loops and time‑lags into account.
“Trust is not built through artificial certainty,” he said. “It is built when we are open about what we know, what we don’t, and how we will adapt as new information emerges.”
The Commissioner highlighted examples – from methane emissions to marine ecosystems and biosecurity incursions – that show how stocks and flows, emergent behaviour, and uncertainty shape environmental outcomes. These concepts, he argued, can be made accessible when grounded in real‑world situations.
He cautioned against society’s growing tendency to reject nuance and favour overly simple narratives, warning that this undermines good environmental governance.
“To navigate climate change, biodiversity loss, and other pressures, people need ways to grasp complexity in their everyday decisions”.
