Environment Minister Calms Down on China’s Criticism

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Australia’s Environment Minister softens criticism of China after winning the Great Barrier Reef.

Sussan Ley carefully dropped suggestions that Beijing was responsible for an unsuccessful attempt to put the reef on the endangered species list.

The Australian government had previously claimed that China tried to fabricate the result by putting pressure on the World Heritage Committee.

But after successfully pushing to stop UNESCO’s declassification, Ms Ley changed her mind.

“All I can report is what I saw at the meeting and in fact the Chinese delegate accepted the consensus, the overwhelming consensus, which came from 19 out of 21 countries,” he said. she said on 2GB radio.

Ms Ley went on to say that ‘green policy’ had played a role, with various countries using the process to make a broader point on climate change.

“There was quite a bit of green bureaucracy politics, if I can call it that, that you often find in some of these bodies,” she said.

“Particularly when they are focused on the big picture without understanding individual countries as well as they should understand Australia.”

UNESCO has given Australia an additional eight months to improve its protection of the reef before making a final decision, but is adamant the site meets the criteria to be classified as endangered.

The World Heritage Committee called for accelerated action at all possible levels to address the threat of climate change.

Ms Ley refused to accept that a downgrade is inevitable unless the government shows it takes climate change and water pollution more seriously.

She admitted the reef was under threat, but said he was not alone. Ms Ley described the postponement as a victory for “Team Australia”.

“An endangered list would have been a real kick in the teeth of our tourism operators who work so hard, our farmers, our fishermen, our marine park managers,” she said.

“Farmers need to monitor what they are doing on their farms to ensure that the quality of the water entering the coastal reef is good, fishermen need to report, marine park managers make sure to kick out anyone who doesn’t. shouldn’t be there. “

The reef has been threatened with downgrading for several years following several episodes of massive bleaching, with government scientists calling the outlook bad to very bad.

Environmental groups have described the postponement as a victory for cynical lobbying efforts rather than science or the reef.

-AAP

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