Labor misses burning issue on UNESCO’s ‘in danger’ rating for Great Barrier Reef

Climate scientists say Labor’s target to cut emissions by 43 per cent by 2030 is consistent with global action that would cause 2 degrees or more of global warming, and a report by the Australian Academy of Sciences said if the world warmed by 2 degrees only 1 per cent of corals would survive in their current form.

Plibersek says the government’s 43 per cent target is a “floor not a ceiling”. The government must match this rhetoric with actions.

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And it’s not only climate change and coral bleaching that imperils the reef.

Pollution caused by fertiliser, clearing for agriculture and sediment runoff is another key threat.

The Australian Conservation Foundation reported this month that more than 420,000 hectares of mature or advanced regrowth forest more than 15 years old, mapped as likely habitat for threatened wildlife, was wholly or partly cleared in Queensland in 2018-19.

The federal environment minister has powers, under the Environment Protection Biodiversity Conservation Act, to assess and block clearing that could harm threatened species habitat.

In 2018-19, only 4 per cent was assessed by the former Morrison government.

It is up to Plibersek to reverse this trend.

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