Australia yesterday unveiled a A$1 billion (US$701.9 million) package to protect the climate-ravaged Great Barrier Reef, hoping to prevent the vast network of corals from being removed from UNESCO’s World Heritage list.
Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the nine-year plan months after narrowly avoiding the reef being placed on UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger.
“We are backing the health of the reef and the economic future of tourism operators, hospitality providers and Queensland communities that are at the heart of the reef economy,” Morrison said.
Photo: AP
The move comes ahead of a general election expected in May, when Morrison would have to win key Queensland seats near the reef to remain in power.
When the UN in 2015 threatened to downgrade the reef’s World Heritage listing, Australia created the “Reef 2050” plan and poured billions of dollars into protection.
The measures are believed to have arrested the pace of decline, but much of the world’s largest reef system has already been damaged.
A study last year found that bleaching had affected 98 percent of the reef since 1998, leaving just a fraction of it untouched.
The Morrison administration’s support for coal and reluctance to tackle climate change has seen his Liberal Party bleed support in major cities and prompted the emergence of a string of electoral challenges from climate-focused independents.
Australians are overwhelmingly in favor of action to limit climate change, having experienced a string of warming-worsened disasters from bushfires to droughts and floods.
A poll by Sydney’s Lowy Institute last year found that 60 percent of Australians believed “global warming is a serious and pressing problem.”
About 80 percent of Australians supported a net-zero emissions target by 2050, which Canberra reluctantly adopted ahead of a landmark UN climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, last year.
One of the world’s biggest exporters of coal and gas, Australia’s economy is heavily reliant on fossil fuels.
Its political parties also receive significant funds from coal and gas-linked donors.
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