Author Ove Hoegh-Guldberg is Professor of Marine Studies at the University of
Queensland. He is deputy director of the ARC Centre for Excellence in
Coral Reef Studies. |
The listing “is designed to inform the international community of conditions which threaten the very characteristics for which a property was inscribed on the World Heritage List, and to encourage corrective action.″
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Examples of bleached coral bleaching on the Great Barrier
Reef. Credit: Jason South
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About the same time, long-term monitoring by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) reported a 50 per cent decline in coral populations over almost 30 years.
There were numerous other concerns as well. As a result of these growing threats, UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature were invited to visit the reef in March 2012, finding that declining water quality, expanding coastal development, cyclones and mass coral bleaching were affecting the reef.
Then came talk of adding the GBR to the “in danger” list. This led to a massive mobilisation by the Queensland and federal governments to convince World Heritage Committee members and the world that Australia had got the message and had taken significant steps to deal with issues such as water quality and limiting the number of industrial ports up and down the GBR coastline.
Adding the reef to the “in danger” list back then was premature, and giving the federal government the chance to implement changes was justified. As I wrote with University of Queensland legal scholar Justine Bell-James in 2014, it “would seem ill-advised that the World Heritage committee remove one of the only levers it currently has over the treatment of the World Heritage-listed GBR.
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| Work is underway to plant 100,000 healthy corals on reefs in the Cairns and Port Douglas region. Credit: James Brickwood |
With this lever gone, the influence of UNESCO would largely disappear along with, most probably, any political will to prevent the further decline of the once-pristine reef.”
Rightly or wrongly, we have not improved our game enough.
Fast forward to today and the overall health of the Great Barrier Reef has decreased from “poor” to “very poor” in the latest five-year Great Barrier Reef Outlook Report in 2019.
This comprehensive account of the state of the Great Barrier Reef concluded that climate change was its greatest threat, along with coastal development. According to the report, while some gains have been achieved, many gains are occurring too slowly or not at all.
Most significantly has been the rapid escalation of damage from climate change. In just the last five years, the Great Barrier Reef has experienced three record coral bleaching and mortality events. Taken together these impacts have killed at least 50 per cent of shallow water corals. The scale and the impact of these events has been nothing short of shocking.
So, after 10 years of further decline in almost all dimensions plus exceptional heatwave and bleaching impacts, I think that it is time to recognise that the reef is “in danger”.
Others feel that this is a beat-up that involves the 21 members of the Chinese-led World Heritage Committee. For the Minister Sussan Ley, this is about a government being broadsided by UNESCO processes.
For me, however, the science is telling us that we are not doing enough to ensure the recovery of the reef from decades of declining water quality, coastal development and climate change. It is a story about rapid environmental change driving our reef to rubble.
Australia will oppose a draft World Heritage Committee recommendation that Queensland's Great Barrier Reef be singled out for an "in danger" listing.
Importantly, this is also not a time to be giving up, but a time to accelerate our efforts to fix water quality, control crown of thorns starfish outbreaks, and deal comprehensively with the climate problem. We must seek new solutions – and we must also double down on driving Australia and the international communities to zero emissions as soon as possible.
Given the big impacts that are starting to occur on the Great Barrier Reef, we are heading into territory that will be hard to reverse. We must get to the zero carbon emissions as soon as possible, while helping our neighbours to do so as well.
Great Barrier Reef 
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| Australia criticises United Nations warning that Great Barrier Reef is in danger |
The climate science tells us Australia must reduce its emissions to zero by 2035 or sooner.
After all, every tonne of carbon going into the atmosphere will cost us, whether as a loss of jobs and income, or the loss of the intangible benefits of a place like the Great Barrier Reef.
While the issue may be inconvenient for Australia’s leadership, it is a wake-up call to all of us that unless we take deep and serious action on climate change, we face the prospect of our World Heritage-listed Great Barrier Reef no longer being a coral reef paradise.
Links
- (AU ABC) Environment Minister Says Government Will Challenge UNESCO Move To List Great Barrier Reef As 'In Danger'
- (AU ABC) Coral Reefs Across The World 'In Danger' As Scientists Note Slowing Calcification
- (AU) Barrier Reef Doomed As Up To 99% Of Coral At Risk, Report Finds
- (AU) Great Barrier Reef Outlook 'Critical' As Climate Change Called Number One Threat To World Heritage
- (AU) 'There Is No Time To Lose': Great Barrier Reef Has Lost Half Its Corals
- (AU) Australia Cannot Wait For Climate Decision To Save Reef: Foundation
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