Last chance for real climate action to save Great Barrier Reef from In Danger listing

2025-07-10

The Australian Greens urge the Australian and Queensland governments to act on UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee’s advice to protect the Great Barrier Reef, by ending their addiction to fossil fuels and property funding water quality measures.

A decision overnight by the World Heritage Committee giving Australia 6 months to take action to avoid an In Danger listing for the Great Barrier Reef has specifically called for strong climate targets that would limit global warming to 1.5°C. 

The Greens say this means a 2035 target of net zero, not approving any new coal or gas projects, and rescinding the North West Shelf gas plant extension. 

This repeated warning from the World Heritage Committee on the fate of the Reef and the 60,000 people who depend on it for their livelihood comes after six mass bleaching events in nine years. 

With sole balance of power in the Senate this term, the Greens continue to advocate for science-based climate targets, no new coal and gas, and environmental laws with teeth. 

Lines attributable to Greens Leader and spokesperson on Climate and Energy, Larissa Waters:

“This has to be the last chance to take action to protect the Reef and the jobs that rely upon it from climate ruin. Over the last 30 years, the Reef has permanently lost half of its coral cover. We know that with 1.5 degrees of warming we will lose 90% of global coral reefs, and the world is on track to exceed that.

“Rising global emissions caused by the burning of fossil fuels are boiling our oceans and killing the Great Barrier Reef. Yet no government has had the heart to put protecting the Reef ahead of protecting the profits of big polluters, who are also generous political donors.

“UNESCO has explicitly said gas facilities are damaging the Reef 1, so why did Labor approve the North West Shelf carbon bomb knowing half of the Reef’s coral cover has already been lost?

“Minister Watt must immediately cancel the draft approval for Woodside’s North West Shelf gas project, and stop the bipartisan trend of indiscriminately approving new coal and gas projects.

“New coal and gas mines have been approved like confetti by both Labor and Liberal federal governments, despite climate being the biggest threat to the Reef and the 60,000 people whose livelihood depends on it.

“Queenslanders and Australians have had enough of governments ruling for the billionaires and doing favours for big corporations.

“Only strong political action on the climate crisis can secure a future for the Great Barrier Reef, and that’s why the Greens, backed by scientists, will continue to call for the end of the fossil fuel addiction by both major parties.”

Quotes attributable to Greens spokesperson for healthy oceans, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson: 

“Investments in tackling local threats like unsustainable fishing and water pollution are welcome, but all the money in the world won’t save the Great Barrier Reef from being annihilated by the political stupidity of ripping open new coal and gas projects in a climate crisis. 

“New research has confirmed alarming coral mortality rates of 92 per cent after last year’s bleaching event at Lizard Island on the Great Barrier Reef, marking it one of the highest coral mortality rates ever documented globally. 

“Repeated marine heatwaves from the burning of fossil fuels are wreaking havoc across Australia’s coastlines: from record mass coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef to toxic algal blooms in South Australia. How much more death, destruction, and suffering must there be before the Albanese government takes climate action seriously?”

References

  1. State of conservation of properties inscribed on the World Heritage List p. 25