The Australian authorities carried out a global lobbying marketing campaign to preserve the Nice Barrier Reef off a listing of world heritage websites at risk, together with dispatching politicians and officers to Unesco’s Paris headquarters and asking diplomats to assemble intelligence on nations that might affect the choice.
The marketing campaign is revealed in paperwork launched to the Greens after a parliamentary request and present how Australia sought to affect Unesco and members of the 21-country world heritage committee within the lead as much as a crunch assembly in July final 12 months.
A sustained technique was developed by the federal government and authorised by the atmosphere minister, Tanya Plibersek, in December 2023 after the committee had warned in September the reef could be thought-about for the “in-danger” listing at its subsequent assembly in July 2024.
Plibersek mentioned the federal government was “proud of the work we’ve done to better protect the Great Barrier Reef, and pleased that UNESCO has acknowledged that work”.
She mentioned Labor had invested $1.2bn to higher shield the reef and doubled funding for reef science.
“We will continue to work with the World Heritage Committee and UNESCO to ensure the protection of the Reef and all World Heritage properties impacted by climate change, right around the globe.”
The technique outlined how Australia would goal conferences with newer members of the committee, would meet in individual and nearly with Unesco and its advisers and recognized alternatives in different worldwide conferences to place its case that it was doing its utmost to guard the reef.
Australia’s election to the chief board of Unesco the earlier month would offer “an additional avenue to promote Australia’s World Heritage interests”, the technique mentioned.
In November 2023, the Australian authorities additionally appointed a full-time Paris-based ambassador to Unesco, Greer Alblas. The paperwork present Alblas was frequently engaged on the reef points and had met with different Unesco ambassadors, the place she pushed for “a fair, consistent and transparent approach to climate affected World Heritage properties”.
In April 2024, Australia’s reef envoy, Senator Nita Inexperienced, travelled to Unesco headquarters in Paris, becoming a member of Josh Thomas, the chief government of the federal government’s Nice Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an atmosphere division official and Alblas, for conferences with Unesco officers and committee members.
In Could, a cable reported on one assembly Alblas had with Unesco’s World Heritage Centre in Paris, the place she mentioned: “Instead of singling the Great Barrier Reef with a threat of in Danger listing, we should be showcasing what managing World Heritage properties in an uncertain climate future looks like when it is done well.”
A senior overseas affairs official additionally travelled to Paris in July and had conferences with senior Unesco administrators the place reef points have been additionally mentioned.
Abroad Australian authorities workers posted in committee member nations have been despatched questionnaires to fill out to assemble intelligence. Diplomats in Greece, Bulgaria, Argentina, Lebanon, Belgium and Jamaica have been amongst these to finish the work.
Employees have been requested to determine atmosphere teams, media shops and journalists of their nation with a “history of advocacy” or curiosity within the reef. They have been requested to stipulate their member states’ place on world heritage points, and its views on the reef being presumably listed as in-danger.
Nearly all of the responses to the questionnaires have been closely redacted, as have been a number of different cables and paperwork.
In September, after the reef had once more escaped an in-danger itemizing on the committee assembly in India, a authorities cable mentioned “engagement with committee members” had been a “key element of Australia’s World Heritage advocacy strategy and developing and maintaining relationships with the new Committee will be crucial to Australia’s interests”.
The paperwork additionally present the federal government is conscious that its advocacy will have to be maintained till not less than 2026, when the committee has mentioned it may subsequent take into account a hazard itemizing for the reef.
Locations on the world heritage listing are inscribed due to their “outstanding value to humanity” however websites are positioned on the in-danger listing if there are present or potential threats to these values.
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In 2021 the Nice Barrier Reef grew to become the primary web site globally to be really helpful for the hazard listing primarily due to the impacts of local weather change.
However after intensive lobbying from the Morrison authorities, the advice from Unesco and its advisers, the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was ignored by the world heritage committee.
That call raised issues amongst world heritage specialists that the committee was changing into more and more politicised and too typically was ignoring scientific and technical recommendation.
Local weather change is essentially the most prevalent menace to world heritage websites, in line with IUCN, with the menace thought-about excessive or very excessive at 83 websites all over the world.
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, who requested the paperwork, mentioned they revealed “a furious, coordinated and global lobbying effort to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the World Heritage in danger list”.
He mentioned he believed if the reef was positioned on the in-danger listing, it might draw consideration to Australia’s fossil gasoline export trade.
“Successive pro-fossil fuel Australian governments know this, hence it’s not in their interest to see an in danger listing,” he mentioned.
“Australia simply cannot be the guardian of this greatest natural wonder of the world and also the third biggest exporter of fossil fuels on the planet. It is a stark choice between coal or coral.”
He mentioned the reef had turn into “one of the most politicised ecosystems on earth” and the paperwork “make clear the Albanese government is acutely aware of the disconnect between Australia’s claims on taking domestic action on climate change, and our ongoing significant fossil fuel exports.”
Widespread mass bleaching of the Nice Barrier Reef’s coral was first noticed in 1998 and once more in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022. Final summer time’s bleaching was essentially the most widespread with some areas seeing excessive ranges of coral dying.
Whish-Wilson mentioned it might be “farcical” if the reef continued to be stored off Unesco’s hazard listing, “and I suggest highly damaging to its reputation and standing as a global institution”.
Dr Lissa Schindler, the Nice Barrier Reef marketing campaign supervisor on the Australian Marine Conservation Society, mentioned: “The government views an in danger listing as a penalty against their international reputation. The documents show a strong focus on shaping perceptions, including managing criticism of Australia’s climate policies and fossil fuel exports. It’s clear they saw this as a high-stakes issue.
“The government’s focus on lobbying while the reef was undergoing its worst bleaching event on record in 2024 is troubling. Lobbying may delay an ‘in-danger’ listing, but it doesn’t address the root causes of the reef’s decline.”
