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Australia has described a draft decision by the UN World Heritage Committee to include the Great Barrier Reef in its list of “endangered” politically motivated.
The committee, chaired by China’s Vice Minister of Education Tian Xuejun, and selects UNESCO World Heritage Sites, proposed adding the world’s largest collection of coral reefs to the list of detrimental impact of climate change and coastal development.
The designation could ultimately cause the reef to lose its World Heritage status, although officials said the list was intended to spur emergency action to safeguard a living structure that stretches to 2,300. km along the east coast of Australia.
But Sussan Ley, Australia’s environment minister, said the government had been “blinded” by the committee’s finding and alleged there was a lack of consultation and transparency. He added that Canberra would challenge the draft decision.
“When the procedures are not followed, when the process starts five minutes before the draft decision is published, when the guarantees received by my officials and, indeed, yes, have been revalued, what else can be done? to conclude if it is not politics? ”she said.
The fact that the World Heritage Committee is chaired by a senior Chinese official has raised suspicions in Canberra that it had been pointed out by its trade clash with Beijing.
China-Australia relations have worsened following the Canberra call last year for an investigation into the origins of Covid-19 and the imposition of Beijing tariffs on Australian wine and barley imports.
Ley said she and Marise Payne, Australia’s foreign minister, had already spoken to Audrey Azoulay, director general of Unesco, to complain about the draft decision.
But scientists downplayed the suggestion that the “endangered” listing he had a political motivation. Three mass money laundering events in five years demonstrated the need for the government to do more to combat climate change, they said.
“I see some press coverage saying that this is a whole plan of China not to buy wine, lobsters and screw the coral barrier. I think it’s pretty huge as the draft decision published overnight will be voted on by 21 countries, ”said Terry Hughes, a professor of marine biology at James Cook University.
The controversy will increase further internationally pressure on Canberra, which have been pressured by the United States, the United Kingdom and other countries to commit to a national zero-night emissions target by 2050.
In a draft decision to be voted on next month, the committee urged Canberra to “provide clear commitments to address the threats of climate change, in line with the objectives of the 2015 Paris Agreement, and to allow to reach the aims of quality of the water more quickly ”.
He noted the loss of nearly a third of the shallow-water coral cover after a “bleaching” event in 2016, a process related to warmer-than-normal water that can lead to a mass coral extinction.
The discussion about the “endangered” list came at a difficult time for Australia’s Conservative coalition, which is embroiled in internal disputes over climate policy.
On Monday, Barnaby Joyce, a climate skeptic and supporter of coal mining, sacked Michael McCormack to become national party leader, Liberal Party junior coalition partner and Australian deputy prime minister. Joyce is expected to oppose any move to commit to zero by 2050.
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