The Australian government carried out an international lobbying campaign to keep the Great Barrier Reef off a list of world heritage sites in danger, including dispatching politicians and officials to Unesco’s Paris headquarters and asking diplomats to gather intelligence on countries that could influence the decision.
The campaign is revealed in documents released to the Greens after a parliamentary request and show how Australia sought to influence Unesco and members of the 21-country world heritage committee in the lead up to a crunch meeting in July last year.
A sustained strategy was developed by the government and approved by the environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, in December 2023 after the committee had warned in September the reef would be considered for the “in-danger” list at its next meeting in July 2024.
Plibersek said the 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 said Labor had invested $1.2bn to better protect 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 strategy outlined how Australia would target meetings with newer members of the committee, would meet in person and virtually with Unesco and its advisers and identified opportunities in other international meetings to put its case that it was doing its utmost to protect the reef.
Australia’s election to the executive board of Unesco the previous month would provide “an additional avenue to promote Australia’s World Heritage interests”, the strategy said.
In November 2023, the Australian government also appointed a full-time Paris-based ambassador to Unesco, Greer Alblas. The documents show Alblas was regularly engaged on the reef issues and had met with other Unesco ambassadors, where she pushed for “a fair, consistent and transparent approach to climate affected World Heritage properties”.
In April 2024, Australia’s reef envoy, Senator Nita Green, travelled to Unesco headquarters in Paris, joining Josh Thomas, the chief executive of the government’s Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, an environment department official and Alblas, for meetings with Unesco officials and committee members.
In May, a cable reported on one meeting Alblas had with Unesco’s World Heritage Centre in Paris, where she said: “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 foreign affairs official also travelled to Paris in July and had meetings with senior Unesco directors where reef issues were also discussed.
Overseas Australian government staff posted in committee member countries were sent questionnaires to fill out to gather intelligence. Diplomats in Greece, Bulgaria, Argentina, Lebanon, Belgium and Jamaica were among those to complete the work.
Staff were asked to identify environment groups, media outlets and journalists in their country with a “history of advocacy” or interest in the reef. They were asked to outline their member states’ position on world heritage issues, and its views on the reef being possibly listed as in-danger.
Almost all the responses to the questionnaires were heavily redacted, as were several other cables and documents.
In September, after the reef had again escaped an in-danger listing at the committee meeting in India, a government cable said “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 documents also show the government is aware that its advocacy will need to be maintained until at least 2026, when the committee has said it could next consider a danger listing for the reef.
Places on the world heritage list are inscribed because of their “outstanding value to humanity” but sites are placed on the in-danger list if there are current or potential threats to those values.
In 2021 the Great Barrier Reef became the first site globally to be recommended for the danger list primarily because of the impacts of climate change.
But after extensive lobbying from the Morrison government, the recommendation from Unesco and its advisers, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), was ignored by the world heritage committee.
That decision raised concerns among world heritage experts that the committee was becoming increasingly politicised and too often was ignoring scientific and technical advice.
Climate change is the most prevalent threat to world heritage sites, according to IUCN, with the threat considered high or very high at 83 sites around the world.
The Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, who requested the documents, said they revealed “a furious, coordinated and global lobbying effort to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the World Heritage in danger list”.
He said he believed if the reef was placed on the in-danger list, it would draw attention to Australia’s fossil fuel export industry.
“Successive pro-fossil fuel Australian governments know this, hence it’s not in their interest to see an in danger listing,” he said.
“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 said the reef had become “one of the most politicised ecosystems on earth” and the documents “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 Great Barrier Reef’s coral was first observed in 1998 and again in 2002, 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2022. Last summer’s bleaching was the most widespread with some areas seeing high levels of coral death.
Whish-Wilson said it would be “farcical” if the reef continued to be kept off Unesco’s danger list, “and I suggest highly damaging to its reputation and standing as a global institution”.
Dr Lissa Schindler, the Great Barrier Reef campaign manager at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said: “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.”
