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 \u2018in danger\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This decision ratifies the draft recommendation made to Unesco in June 2024.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnesco 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? \u201cThis isn\u2019t 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\u2019s new coal and gas or the Reef, you can\u2019t have both.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cJust this week the Albanese Labor Government announced new permits for gas drilling along Australia\u2019s west and south-east coastlines. The science is clear \u2013 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAustralia remains one of the world\u2019s largest exporters of both thermal coal and Liquified Natural Gas (LNG). Recent data in the UN\u2019s Sustainable Development Report also shows that under Labor, Australia is the fourth largest per capita exporter of CO2 emissions embodied in fossil fuel exports in the world<\/a>, with only Qatar, Norway and Brunei Darussalam beating us to the top of that unenviable and shameful list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cUnesco gave the Albanese Labor Government until February this year to demonstrate drastically stronger climate ambition, or else risk the Great Barrier Reef being declared \u2018in danger\u2019. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cRising 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.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 \u2018in danger\u2019. This decision ratifies the draft recommendation made to Unesco in June 2024. Greens spokesperson for Healthy Oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: \u201cThe devil … Continue reading “Labor’s grotesque celebrations won’t change the fact the Reef is in danger”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28048","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aussie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28048","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28048"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28048\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28049,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28048\/revisions\/28049"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28048"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28048"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28048"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\u201cWhen 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n