The Australian and Queensland governments must act quickly and decisively to protect the Great Barrier Reef following the release of a new United Nations report from the organisation’s March 2022 visit to the Reef.
The Reactive Monitoring Mission’s report is yet another warning the Reef is in trouble and it is now critical to address climate change as the number one threat to the survival of this World Heritage listed natural wonder. Environmental Advocacy in Central Queensland director Dr Coral Rowston said the report’s results were disappointing, but not surprising, given what scientists have been saying for a long time.
“The Great Barrier Reef is one of Australia’s most spectacular natural wonders and an international treasure that’s threatened by changing climate.
“Climate change is the number one threat to the Reef, driving the marine heatwaves that have caused four mass bleaching events in just the last six years. Business as usual will not safeguard the Reef, we need climate policies and a plan to tackle the climate crisis damaging our Reef.
“The Australian and Queensland governments, to their credit, have increased funding for managing the Reef and are taking positive steps towards a transition from fossil fuel power generation to cleaner and cheaper renewable energy. But we are not on track to reduce the emissions from the fossil fuel industry and address the most important threat.
“New and expanding coal mines are still being approved here in Central Queensland which are in direct conflict with meeting emission reduction targets and limiting global warming to 1.5 or even 2oC”, said Dr Rowston.
Australia’s Climate and Energy minister, Chris Bowen, stressed the need to keep global warming to 1.5oC at the recent COP27 meeting and said “It’s important because if we’re not trying to keep to 1.5oC, then what are we here for?”
Ocean temperatures over parts of the Great Barrier Reef have reached record levels this month, sparking fears of a second summer in a row of mass coral bleaching. 2022 was the first time that mass bleaching has ever occurred during a La Niña weather event and 2021 was the warmest year on record for the world’s oceans.
Dr Rowston said, “The heat absorbed by the oceans last year was equivalent in energy to seven Hiroshima atomic bombs detonating every single second.
“It is time for the Australian and Queensland governments to slow the fossil fuel industry and really cut emissions if they are serious about saving the Reef and the $6 billion tourism industry and 60,000 jobs it supports.
“As a start, the federal government should reject the Clive Palmer-owned Central Queensland Coal mine just 10 km from the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, and Queensland should increase its woefully inadequate emissions reduction target to be at least in line with other states and stop approving new coal mines”.
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