The Great Barrier Reef has avoided inclusion on a global list of in-danger sites, but an expert says this does not reflect the reality of a reef in “dire straits.”
The World Heritage Committee on July 25 night accepted draft recommendations to exclude the reef from its in-danger list for the third consecutive year.
It noted a “step change” in Australia’s approach to climate change and marine management even as the world’s largest living structure experienced its fifth mass bleaching event in eight years during the 2023-24 summer.
University of Queensland marine studies professor Ove Hoegh-Guldberg labelled it a political decision designed to take pressure off governments.
“The reef is in dire straits,” he told AAP.
“I am appalled by today’s decision, which has sent the false message that the Great Barrier Reef is somehow not ‘in danger’.
“This is clearly a case of political convenience trumping science.”
The committee has urged the government to take further action and said it was clear the reef “remains under serious threat.”
“Urgent and sustained action is of utmost priority in order to improve the resilience of the property in a rapidly changing climate,” its decision read.
Reductions in both sediment and dissolved inorganic nitrogen are needed to improve water quality.
Significant rates of native vegetation clearing in reef catchment areas are also a threat.
The federal government has legislated targets to reduce carbon emissions by 43 percent below 2005 levels by 2030 and achieve net zero by 2050.
But Australia should set more ambitious targets to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees, as even this increase could cause coral reefs to decline by 70 to 90 percent, according to a 2018 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
The committee welcomed government efforts to restore gullies and phase out destructive gillnet fishing.
These programs will have some positive effect, Prof Hoegh-Guldberg said, but governments cannot address one issue and ignore the rest.
“We must be doing all we can do to bring down emissions of greenhouse gases and create the circumstances for the reef to recover,” he said.
“Otherwise our children, and children into the future, won’t see the Great Barrier Reef—that in itself is a tragedy.”
The federal and Queensland governments have welcomed the committee’s decision, but Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek acknowledged they had a responsibility to take further action.
“The Great Barrier Reef is part our national heritage, we have a duty to safeguard it, to care for it, and to pass it on, so our kids and grandkids can enjoy it like we do,” she said.
“We also know the world is watching us.
“We need to act on climate change, we need to protect our special places and the animals that call them home and that is precisely what we are doing.”
Coral reefs, which are home to about 25 percent of the world’s fish, are enduring the fourth global mass bleaching event.
This is expected to impact at least 30 percent of World Heritage-listed coral reef sites.
But if the world can contain global warming to 1.5 degrees, damage to reefs will plateau about the mid-century and coral can bounce back relatively quickly, Prof. Hoegh-Guldberg said.
“(The Great Barrier Reef) is one of the most remarkable features of our planet,” he said.
“It’s not just about beautiful pictures, it’s not just about food, it’s not just about cultural significance—it’s about all of that.
“If we don’t do anything in proportion to what needs to be done, then we will see a world in which coral reefs will be extremely rare things for hundreds of years.”
Australia must report back to the World Heritage Committee on its progress by 2025.
