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The UNESCO World Heritage Committee recommended the inclusion, recognizing the climate crisis as the driving factor behind the destruction of the world’s largest coral reef. Australia called for an “urgent” response to the threats posed by climate change.
The listing will be voted on at the committee’s meeting in China next month.
Australia’s environment minister, Susan Lee, said the government would “strongly oppose” the recommendation, saying the government is investing $3 billion in protecting coral reefs. Lee said officials in Canberra were stunned by the move and accused UNESCO of reneging on previous assurances that the reefs would not be declared endangered.
“The Great Barrier Reef is the world’s best managed reef and this draft recommendation was developed without examining the reef directly and without the most up-to-date information,” Lai said in a statement.
In a call with UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay, she told me she had “made clear that we would oppose this flawed approach, an approach that was taken without adequate consultation”.
The Great Barrier Reef spans an area of 133,000 square miles (345,000 square kilometers) and is home to more than 1,500 species of fish and 411 species of hard corals, and is a vital marine ecosystem. It also contributes $4.8 billion annually to the Australian economy and supports 64,000 jobs, according to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.
But the long-term survival of the reefs is being called into question. It has experienced three devastating mass bleaching events since 2015, caused by above-average ocean temperatures as burning fossil fuels is warming the planet. In October, researchers from ARC’s Center of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies found that coral reefs have lost 50% of their coral population in the past three decades, and climate change has been a major driver of reef disruption. In 2019, the Australian government’s Great Barrier Reef Outlook report downgraded the reef’s condition from “poor” to “extremely poor”.
The UNESCO panel said it was important for Australia to implement the recommendations of the 2019 report, which called for “urgent action to mitigate climate change and improve water quality”.
She said the government’s “progress has been insufficient” in fulfilling its major coral reef policy, called the Coral Reef Plan 2050, and that it “requires stronger and clearer commitments, particularly towards urgently addressing the impacts of climate change.”
Environment Minister Lee agreed that climate change was the single biggest threat to the world’s coral reefs, but said “it would be a mistake, in our view, to identify the world’s best managed reefs on the ‘at risk’ list.”
The scientists said the UNESCO proposal was a wake-up call.
On its current trajectory, average global temperatures will increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius, which is what scientists warn coral reefs cannot survive, according to the Climate Council. It recommended Australia cut its emissions by 75% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2035.
Australia has not pledged to reach net zero emissions by 2050, making it an exceptional global region. Australia’s current goals are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% to 28% from 2005 levels by 2030, which have been widely criticized as insufficiently ambitious.
“The Australian government has stewardship of one of the world’s most iconic ecosystems, but its continued support for fossil fuels and its lack of effective climate policy means it is completely failing to live up to that responsibility,” said the Climate Council spokesperson and climate scientist. Professor Leslie Hughes, in a statement.
“The situation is dire and our response should be like this.”
David Ritter, CEO of Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said coral reefs cannot be protected “without rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and gas.”
“Just one week after Prime Minister (Scott) Morrison faced the rejection of world leaders for his poor performance on climate at the G7 conference, we are witnessing the catastrophic consequences of Australia’s failure to reduce emissions – and reefs are paying the price,” Ritter said in a statement.
The report comes as Australia swore a new deputy prime minister on Tuesday. Barnaby Joyce, a climate change skeptic, is the leader of the National Party – a party representing rural Australia, which relies heavily on fossil fuel mining. Joyce’s position is expected to make it more difficult for the Morrison government to strengthen the climate targets adopted by most other major nations.
UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger has 53 entries, which include natural wonders and man-made sites. The Old City of Jerusalem was added in 1982, while Aleppo – the Syrian city that was bombed with airstrikes – was included on the list in 2013.
The inclusion is supposed to prompt parties to take action to save endangered sites. According to the UNESCO website, if a site in danger loses the characteristics that make it special, “the World Heritage Committee may decide to remove the property from both the List of World Heritage in Danger and the World Heritage List.”
CNN’s Hilary Whiteman contributed to this report.
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