Australia hits out at threatened UN downgrade of Great Barrier Reef

The Selous game reserve in Tanzania, which could be stripped of World Heritage status after poachers have run amok

The Great Barrier Reef was worth an estimated $4 billion a year in tourism revenue for the Australian economy before the coronavirus pandemic

Australia said Tuesday it will strongly oppose a UNESCO plan to list the Great Barrier Reef as being "in danger" over deterioration caused by climate change.

The UN body released a draft report on Monday recommending the reef's World Heritage status be downgraded because of its dramatic coral decline, after years of public threats to do so.

The reef is one of seven sites threatened with being added to the endangered heritage list over ecological damage, overdevelopment, overtourism or security concerns.

Environmental campaigners said the threat to the Great Barrier Reef's heritage status highlight Australia's lack of action to curb the carbon emissions which contribute to global warming.

"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.

- 'From poor to very poor' -

But it noted "with the utmost concern and regret... that the long-term outlook for the ecosystem of the property has further deteriorated from poor to very poor," referring to Australia's move to downgrade the reef's health status after back-to-back mass bleaching events in 2016 and 2017.

Placement on the UN body's in-danger list is not considered a sanction. According to UNESCO, some nations have their sites added to gain international attention and help to save them, but 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 country hoped to reach carbon neutrality "as soon as possible" without harming its commodity-dependent economy.

- 'Shame' -

"The recommendation from UNESCO is clear and unequivocal that the Australian government is not doing enough to protect our greatest natural asset, especially on climate change," said WWF head of oceans Richard Leck.

"The Australian government cannot save the Great Barrier Reef by itself," she said, while adding that Canberra could act to improve water quality at the reef, which would increase its resilience to climate change.

In December, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said climate change had pushed the reef into critical condition.

"Australia's climate record is more consistent with a 2.5-3.0 Celsius rise in global average temperature –- a level that would destroy the Great Barrier Reef and all the world's coral reefs," she said.

The reef has also 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.

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