Unesco changes Great Barrier Reef status sparking row with Australian government
22 June, 2021
Australia will strongly oppose a Unesco plan to list the fantastic Barrier Reef as "in danger" over deterioration due to climate change.
The UN body released a draft report on Monday recommending the reef's World Heritage status be downgraded as a result of its dramatic coral decline, after years of public threats to do so.
Environmental campaigners said your choice highlighted Australia's insufficient action to curb the carbon emissions which donate to global warming.
Environment Minister Sussan Ley said Australia would challenge the move, accusing UN officials of backflipping on their assurances prior to the World Heritage Committee's 44th session in China next month, where in fact the recommendation will be formally considered.
"Politics have subverted a proper process and for the World Heritage Committee to not even foreshadow this listing is, I think, appalling," she told reporters in Canberra.
The UN body didn't consider the vast amounts of dollars spent wanting to protect the world's major coral reef, she added.
The committee's draft report did commend Australia's efforts to really improve reef quality and its own financial commitment.
But it noted "with the most concern and regret … that the long-term outlook for the ecosystem of the house has further deteriorated from poor to very poor," discussing Australia's proceed to downgrade the reef's health status after back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.
Ms Ley said she had spoken to Unesco Director-General Audrey Azoulay overnight Monday expressing "very evidently our strong disappointment, even bewilderment".
Placement on the UN body's in-danger list isn't considered a sanction. According to Unesco, some nations have their sites added to gain international attention and help save them nonetheless it is seen as a dishonour by others.
Australia has resisted calls to commit to a target of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, with Prime Minister Scott Morrison saying the united states hoped to attain carbon neutral "immediately" without harming its commodity-dependent economy.
The downgrade recommendation for the fantastic Barrier Reef prompted environmental groups to take aim at the Australian government's reluctance to take better climate action.
The Climate Council said it brought "shame on the government, which is standing by as the reef declines instead of fighting to safeguard it".
"The recommendation from Unesco is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government isn't doing enough to safeguard our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change," said WWF head of oceans Richard Leck.
Apart from its inestimable natural, scientific and environmental value, the two 2,300-kilometre-long reef was worth an estimated US$4.8 billion a year in tourism earnings for the Australian economy prior to the coronavirus pandemic.
In December, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said climate change had pushed the reef into critical condition.
Australian Marine Conservation Society environmental consultant Imogen Zethoven said the Unesco report made clear that limiting global temperature rises to at least one 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels was crucial for the Great Barrier Reef.
"Australia's climate record is more constant with a 2.5-3.0 Celsius rise in global conditions - a level that could destroy the fantastic Barrier Reef and all of the world's coral reefs," she said.
THE FANTASTIC Barrier Reef has suffered three mass coral bleaching events previously five years, losing half its corals since 1995 as ocean temperatures have climbed.
Bleaching occurs when changes in ocean temperatures stress healthy corals, creating them to expel algae living in their tissues, which drains them of their vibrant colours and will lead to their death.
It has additionally been battered by several cyclones as climate change drives more extreme weather and outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish - which eat the coral - in recent decades.
Source: www.thenationalnews.com
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