Australia must embrace clean energy and stop CO2 emissions following the release of a UNESCO report on climate change, says Greenpeace.

UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee released a report finding CO2 emissions will continue to kill the Great Barrier Reef unless action is taken.

The Committee states:

“Climate change remains the most significant overall threat to the future of [the Great Barrier Reef]. It is recommended that the Committee express its serious concern at the coral bleaching and mortality that occurred in 2016 and at the second event underway in early 2017.

“While the long-term effects of these events cannot be fully evaluated yet, their scale serves to underline the severity of the threat to the property from climate change.”

Australia ‘tinkering with environmental disaster’

Greenpeace Climate and Energy Campaigner Dr Nikola Casule said the government’s Reef 2050 plan is “tinkering at the edges of environmental disaster”.

Dr Casule said to save the Great Barrier Reef, Australia must stop funding fossil fuels and transition to clean, renewable energy.

“The Turnbull Government propping up coal, oil and gas through fossil fuel subsidies is at the heart of this problem,” he said.

“It’s time we ended polluter hand-outs across the board. We should start by ruling out any taxpayer funding for a new coal mega-mine in the Galilee Basin.”

$11 billion tax breaks to big polluters

In addition, Dr Casule said the Australian Government currently funds climate change with over $11 billion worth of tax breaks to big polluters per year.

“Fossil fuel subsidies have been described by the Bloomberg Editorial Board as ‘the world’s dumbest policy’ for a very good reason,” he said. Investing public money in fossil fuels also diverts tax dollars from critical public services, he added.

“The Great Barrier Reef is Australia’s greatest natural wonder,” he said. “This is Australia’s national shame.”

He said the rest of the world looked on in horror at the plight of the reef.

“Real climate leadership from Malcolm Turnbull is no longer an option—it’s a requirement. Australia must stop pouring money into fossil fuels, ban new coal mines, and exert every effort to catch up with other countries making progress on climate action.”