Guest essay by Eric Worrall

Adding to the confusion of Australia’s approach to international climate change diplomacy.

Australia pressures Unesco over impact of climate change on Great Barrier Reef

Lisa Cox and Ben Smee
Thu 29 Aug 2019 04.00 AEST

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It comes ahead of the release of two government reports that are expected to project a poor outlook for the reef, the status of which will be reassessed by Unesco next year after previously avoiding an in danger listing.

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At a meeting of the committee in July, Australian representatives said climate change should not be used as the basis for an in danger listing for world heritage properties.

“We would not expect to see propositions that climate change threats would form the basis for in danger listing individual properties because this is a global problem not amenable to site-level intervention,” Stephen Oxley, from the environment and energy department, told the committee.

“But we do need to find a way to recognise the reality that whole categories of world heritage properties globally are threatened by climate change – coral reefs, glaciers and mountain forests to name three examples.”

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2019/aug/29/australia-pressures-unesco-over-impact-of-climate-change-on-great-barrier-reef

In my opinion the Scott Morrison government is trying to play both sides of the climate debate – on one hand they want reliable fossil fuel energy, but at the same time they don’t want to upset the greens.

This impossible effort to reconcile climate activism with support for fossil fuels appears to be leading to confusing episodes like this latest Australian proposition to UNESCO, that climate change should be recognised as a serious threat, but should not be cited as a specific threat to the Great Barrier Reef.