Experts call for greater action on climate change, and warn that opening up huge new coalmines in Queensland could cause permanent damage to the reef

The federal government’s plan to reverse the decline of the Great Barrier Reef is “weak” and requires greater action in six key areas, including climate change, according to a new report.



The set of recommendations, compiled by three of the reef’s most experienced scientists, warn that opening up huge new coalmines in Queensland is “too risky” for the Great Barrier Reef. They also say that it “will not be possible to develop and operate the largest coal ports in the world along the edge of the Great Barrier Reef world heritage area over the next 60 years without causing permanent damage to the region”.

The report, published in Nature Climate Change, calls for a shift towards better conservation values, Australia playing a “more active role in transitioning away from fossil fuels” and advocates a bans on the dredging and dumping of seabed spoil within the world heritage area.

It also recommends a revamp of the environmental assessment process for new developments, greater powers for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority over fishing and ports and a 50-year plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and slash chemical run-off.

The Great Barrier Reef and the coal mine that could kill it Read more

The federal and Queensland governments have devised a long-term plan to arrest the decline of the reef, which is considered to be in poor and worsening health having lost half of its coral cover over the past 30 years.

However, scientists have attacked the plan for failing to confront the issue of climate change, which is the leading long-term threat to the reef. The opening up of the Galilee Basin coalfields, to export resources via the reef, could result in the release of an additional 705m tonnes of greenhouse gases – more than Australia’s annual total.

Unesco’s world heritage committee will decide in June whether to list the reef as “in danger.” The Nature Climate Change report notes that more than half of the 41 outstanding universal values ascribed to the reef by Unesco are in decline due to pollution, coastal development, dredging, overfishing and climate change.

“We know what we need to do to help the reef, the problem is that the government’s plan is pretty weak,” said Jon Brodie, a marine scientist at James Cook University. Brodie authored the paper alongside Jon Day, a fellow former director at the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, and Terry Hughes, director of coral reef studies at James Cook University.

“The plan doesn’t address climate change at all, the water quality improvement part is better but it isn’t funded properly and the plan doesn’t set out good governance around ports, which is something Unesco wants.

“We can’t really stop exporting coking coal because we need to make steel. But we need to stop the expansion of thermal coal exports from the Galilee Basin.”

Brodie said the expansion of the Abbot Point coal port near Bowen, which has seen a lengthy battle over where to dump seabed excavated for the development, has been “a farce.”

“They had five options to expand the port and they picked the cheapest, dirtiest one,” he said. “And when enough people complained about dumping it at sea, they picked the next worst option, which was putting it in the wetlands. We are now on to another option.”

Day said that while ports could continue to operate next to the reef, all development needed to occur at a more sustainable level.

“If that means less dredging, less coalmining and more sustainable fishing, then that’s what Australia has to do,” he said. “Business as usual is not an option because the values for which the reef was listed as world heritage are already deteriorating, and will only get worse unless a change in policy occurs.”

Between them, the Australian and Queensland governments have pledged to ban the dumping of dredged spoil within the world heritage area and have set targets to reduce the amount of nitrogen and other chemicals flowing on to the reef from farming.

However, conservationists have said the funding for pollution reduction is insufficient and that even if the world keeps to an internationally agreed limit of a 2C increase in temperatures from pre-industrial times, ocean warming and acidification will further reduce coral cover to perilously low levels.