Press release – 5 July, 20176 July 2017: The Government has again avoided the embarrassment of an ‘in danger’ listing for the Great Barrier Reef following today’s UNESCO World Heritage Committee decision, but Australians will hold them to account for their hypocrisy, says Greenpeace campaigner, Alix Foster Vander Elst.“The Government says one thing, but does another on the Reef,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.
“Queensland and Australian government ministers say they are committed to preserving the Reef for future generations, but their actions make it quite clear they do not care enough to do what we need to save it.”
Both the UNESCO World Heritage Committee and the Government’s own Reef 2050 Advisory Committee have warned that the Government’s Reef 2050 Plan, which primarily addresses water quality and land clearing, is inadequate and will not work because it does not address the primary threat to the Reef—climate change.
UNESCO’s scientific
report
on coral reefs released on 23 June warns the only way to save the Reef from certain destruction before the end of the century is to halt global warming at well below 1.5-2°C above pre-industrial levels.
“The Australian Government has the power to act on global warming. It is utterly irresponsible to suggest otherwise. And Australia must act if it is serious about protecting the Reef. This means we must keep 90 per cent of existing coal reserves in the ground [1],” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.
“But instead, the Queensland and Australian Governments are pouring billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money into fossil fuel subsidies, talking up the construction of more coal-fired power stations and bending over backwards to facilitate the expansion of Australian coal mining in the Galilee basin, including a proposal for the NAIF to provide a $1 billion loan to the billionaire Adani mining corporation,” said Ms Foster Vander Elst.
“When the Government is spending fifty five times more on fossil fuel subsidies [2] than on its much-touted Reef 2050 plan, it’s quite clear what its priorities really are.
“What we should be doing is cutting fossil fuels subsidies, banning new coal mines and offering the world real climate leadership. If we do not act now, then when Australians mourn the destruction of the Great Barrier Reef in years to come, they will know who to blame: the Abbott-Turnbull Australian Governments who wilfully promoted fossil fuels over committed action on climate change,” Ms Foster Vander Elst said.
Notes
[1] See Greenpeace Report April 2016, ‘Exporting climate change, killing the reef’ at
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/Global/australia/reports/Exporting%20climate%20change,%20killing%20the%20reef.pdf
[2] The Reef 2050 Plan has a price-tag of $2bn over ten years—or $200m a year—but Market Forces has identified $11bn in tax-payer funded fossil fuel subsidies provided by the Government each year: ‘How your taxes subsidise fossil fuels, Market Forces,
http://www.marketforces.org.au/ffs/tax/
Background briefing & timeline
Greenpeace’s newly updated 18-page report, ‘The double threat to the Great Barrier Reef: climate change and the Australian Government’ offers a  background briefing and timeline on UNESCO, the Australian Government and the Reef:
http://www.greenpeace.org/australia/en/what-we-do/oceans/resources/reports/The-double-threat-to-the-Great-Barrier-Reef/
Photos and video
High resolution photographs and video for the media can be accessed in the Greenpeace media library here, including drone footage of bleached coral:
http://media.greenpeace.org/shoot/27MZIFJJD68E1
For interviews contact
Rachael Vincent, Media Campaigner 0413 993 316