The 46th session of the Unesco World Heritage Committee in New Delhi has overnight decided not to declare the Great Barrier Reef be placed on a list of World Heritage sites ‘in danger’.
This decision ratifies the draft recommendation made to Unesco in June 2024.
As stated by Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:
“The devil is in the detail with this now-confirmed updated decision. The Albanese Labor Government will crow about the work it is doing to protect the Great Barrier Reef, but it is not off the hook, not by a long shot.
“Unesco has clearly called on the Albanese Government to increase its climate ambition to bring Australia into line with the 1.5C target of the Paris Agreement. How do the Scarborough, Barossa and Beetaloo climate bombs, supported by Labor, stack up against this?
“When I travelled to Heron Island on the Great Barrier Reef in April this year to witness the destruction of the most recent bleaching event with my own eyes, one thing was undeniable – the Great Barrier Reef is in danger.
“This isn’t difficult – the more coal and gas mines the Albanese Labor Government rips open, the closer the Great Barrier Reef is to becoming irrevocably degraded and changed forever. It’s new coal and gas or the Reef, you can’t have both.
“Just this week the Albanese Labor Government announced new permits for gas drilling along Australia’s west and south-east coastlines. The science is clear – if we are to meet the Paris target, and protect the Reef, there can be no new coal and gas development. Labor continues to remain in denial.
“Australia remains one of the world’s largest exporters of both thermal coal and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). , with only Qatar, Norway and Brunei Darussalam beating us to the top of that unenviable and shameful list.
“Unesco gave the Albanese Labor Government until February this year to demonstrate drastically stronger climate ambition, or else risk the Great Barrier Reef being declared ‘in danger’. Federal Labor has categorically not increased its ambition and is relying primarily on actions taken by the Queensland state government to placate the concerns of Unesco.
“Rising global emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels are boiling our oceans and killing the Great Barrier Reef. Until the Albanese Government commits to ending new coal and gas this destruction will continue.”
