The policy was also a shrewd defusing of tensions between Liberals and Nationals that have dogged the Coalitions decade in power.
Kean shared credit with Nationals leader John Barilaro, drawn by the prospect of new rural jobs, and secured even Greens and Labor support.
This coup, combined with Keans enthusiasm for an acceleration of national park creation from the miserly rate during the first eight years of Coalition rule, has lent a green hue to the state government. But it is only a hue.
The state remains blighted by environmental problems, particularly in land and water management. The weakening of native vegetation laws in 2017 has seen deforestation explode to a rate at least double that of the previous decade.
The failure to deal seriously with over-extraction of water in the Murray-Darling Basin left rivers choked with carpets of dead fish.
Keans key problem, says former Labor environment minister and premier Bob Carr, is embedded into his governments DNA.
Liberal environment ministers, says Carr, can only be as ambitious as the Nationals will let them be.
The aftermath of a massive fish kill event in the Darling River at Menindee in January 2019.Credit:Graeme McCrabb
The Liberals might control energy and environment, but through their portfolios the Nationals jealously guard their control over land and water policy.
Much of Keans agenda needs the support of the Nationals and its pugnacious leader, Barilaro.
According to Kate Smolski, former chief executive of the NSW Nature Conservation Council, the Nationals have taken an increasingly libertarian approach to land ownership over the past decade.
The Liberal Party has ceded responsibility for the protection of land and water to the Nationals and the Nationals are not protecting it, says Smolski, who is now with Greenpeace.
They are taking this almost ideological position where they believe landowners should be able to do whatever they want with their private land, regardless of how that impacts on their neighbours, regardless of how that impacts on the broader society.
This stance, she says, is one of the causes of the collapse in koala numbers, and the ongoing strife between Coalition partners over regulations to protect their habitat that almost broke the government last year.
The latest iteration of a koala planning policy may only provide limited protection against landholders near urban centres from subdividing their woodlands for redevelopment. Their windfall will inevitably be the koalas and other species loss.
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Chief executive of the Invasive Species Council Andrew Cox says the issue of feral horses in the Kosciuszko National Park is emblematic of the gulf between the parties.
Back in 2003, surveys found about 1500 feral horses, which trample water courses and harden peat bogs and ruin habitat. Last years count found 14,000.
They have taken over the northern end of the park and it continues to be an international embarrassment, Cox says.
Kean agrees horse numbers need to be significantly cut, but his attempts to act have been hampered by Barilaro who argues they are part of the high countrys heritage.
Kean has a legal responsibility to protect that National Park, and he is failing to do so because of Barilaro. I think the Premier should pull [Barilaro] into line, Cox says.
According to Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, who has been involved in NSW politics since first working as a staffer in the Carr era, the greatest difference between this government and predecessors is in land clearing.
To hold its coalition together the Liberal Party has given Nationals everything they want, and when they were elected, the biggest thing on their agenda was more control of private land, she says.
Farmland cleared north of Warren in north-western NSW. Habitat loss is the major threat to the koala and many other native species.Credit:Wolter Peeters
According to the latest data landholders cleared 29,400 hectares in 2018, up 8 per cent from the previous year but more than twice the 12,300 hectares cleared during 2009-17.
Given that 80 per cent of the state lies in private hands, no government will be able to arrest the decline in native species or improve water quality, nor slow the loss of native vegetation unless they are prepared to stand up to the Nationals over private land use, says Faermann.
According to Lock the Gates campaigner Georgina Woods, the Coalition has approved almost 20 big coal mining projects since coming to office, totaling more than 100 million tonnes of potential production a year.
Ms Woods highlights the vanished promises of the 2011 election and the strategic regional land use plans that were supposed to stop mining in drinking water catchments, introduce a biodiversity offset register and failed or abandoned efforts to control air pollution.
Increasingly farmer activists are joining environmentalists to oppose energy projects.
In the trade-off between mining and farming, mining usually wins for the Nationals, one former government official says: They have not done enough to protect [the farmers] part of the economy.
Asked a series of questions about the Nationals impact on the NSW environment Barilaro provided a general statement saying he was proud of their record of balancing between land use and impacts on the environment.
Lets not forget what we inherited when we came into government with the stroke of a pen Bob Carr turned family farms into national parks, impacting mum and dad farmers and stripping them of their livelihood a move The Sydney Morning Herald referred to as a black mark, he said.
Matt Kean has credited support from John Barilaro as critical to getting his energy policy through.
The NSW Nationals live and breathe the Australian landscape - it is where we are from, where we call home and what we live for and there is not one parliamentary member of the National Party who does not want to see native flora and fauna stabilise and prosper.
In a lengthy conversation with the Herald Kean was evidently proud of his governments record, particularly his navigation of energy and climate policies and his proposed expansion of the states national parks by 370,000 hectares.
He says by basing policy firmly on scientific evidence he has been able to defy the culture wars that have engulfed climate policy in other jurisdictions.
Weve shown you can take action on climate change in a way that creates jobs, draws investments, and grows the economy.
Similarly, he believes he can work with the Nationals over the difficult issues of land and resources management and property rights.
Kean says that the energy and climate policies could not have succeeded without Barilaro, and notes the Nationals leader has conceded the number of feral horses in Kosciuszko needs to be reduced to less than 3000.
The big challenge with resource management is not only how we make these industries sustainable environmentally, but how we make them sustainable economically in the long term, Kean says.
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Asked if massive land clearing and falling numbers of species such as the koala were evidence of a failure of his governments stewardship of the environment over the past decade, Kean said he would soon announce a strategy to double koala numbers by 2050. That policy will likely come with funding of almost $180 million.
Other goals include a new policy in plastics and recycling and support for the uptake of electric vehicles in NSW, which he believes is crucial if the state is to achieve its net zero target.
Asked if it is possible to balance environmental concerns and the free use of private land advocated by the Nationals, Kean refers back to his climate and energy success.
Its about finding common ground, he says.
So far it is not clear where the common ground between cleared land and native animals lies.
Nick O'Malley is National Environment and Climate Editor for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He is also a senior writer and a former US correspondent.
Peter Hannam writes on environment issues for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
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Green-hued Kean tries to turn tide on Coalitions dismal conservation record - Sydney Morning Herald
