Heritage Committee Won't Place Great Barrier Reef On ‘In Danger’ List

"Unesco says ‘the facts are the facts and the science is the science’ after its recommendation is ignored"

"The Great Barrier Reef will not be placed on a list of world heritage sites “in danger” after a global lobbying effort from Australia against the proposed listing.

The 21-country World Heritage Committee on Friday ignored a scientific assessment from the UN’s science and culture organisation, Unesco, that the reef was clearly in danger from climate change and so should be placed on the list.

Unesco will instead be asked to carry out a mission to the 2,300km reef in the coming months and Australia will need to send a progress report to the agency by February 2022 – earlier than a December 2022 deadline it had asked for.

Environment groups said the decision was a victory for cynical lobbying and that Australia, as custodians of the world’s biggest coral reef, was now on probation."

Graham Readfearn reports for the Guardian July 23, 2021.

Source: Guardian, 07/26/2021