A Morrison government report to the United Nations on the status of the Great Barrier Reef claims its approach to tackling climate change is among the best in the world and its management of the reef was “second to none”.
But conservationists and scientists immediately hit back at the claim, saying the reef needed more protection and the government’s record in cutting emissions and cutting pollution over it was inadequate.
Last week the Morrison government announced a $1bn reef funding package over the next nine years, including $580m for projects aimed at lowering pollution running into the reef.
The report, delivered to the UN’s world heritage centre in Paris on Wednesday, was requested last year by the 21-country world heritage committee after it ignored Unesco’s recommendation to put the reef on an “in danger” list.
The report comes as the reef is on the verge of a potential sixth mass bleaching event with scientists and conservationists hoping for enough cloud and rain in the next two weeks to cool the ocean off the north Queensland coast.
Data from the Bureau of Meteorology has confirmed December was the hottest month on a record going back to 1900 for sea surface temperatures over the reef.
The environment minister, Sussan Ley, said the government’s investments were “strengthening the resilience of the reef” and its management and scientific research was “second to none.”
Unesco is due to carry out a monitoring mission to the reef in the first half of this year ahead of the world heritage committee meeting scheduled for July in Russia.
Ley said on Thursday the mission would provide the committee with a “first-hand insight” into the scientific research and management of the reef.
Unesco’s recommendation the reef be placed on the “in danger” list was prompted by the affects of three mass bleaching events on the reef in 2016, 2017 and 2020.
The Morrison government staged a fierce lobbying effort to prevent the listing, with Ley flying to Europe on a government jet while Canberra-based ambassadors travelled to Queensland for a snorkelling trip on the reef.
The government argues climate change impacts should not be used as justification for world heritage sites being placed on the list.
The world heritage committee requested the report and raised concerns that progress on improving pollution levels and water quality across the reef was too slow. New plans needed to address “the threat posed to the property by climate change”, the committee said.
In its UN submission, the government said an update to water quality monitoring – which has not yet been made public – “will show that some of the targets in the reef have already been met or exceeded”.
The most recent report on reef water quality, using data up to 2019, suggested the federal and state governments were well behind meeting many of the 2025 targets and the adoption of voluntary programs among farmers to improve land management practices was low.
Ley said global action on climate change was needed, but work to support scientists, farmers, traditional owners and tourism was vital “to ensure the long-term health of our iconic Great Barrier Reef”.
Associate prof Scott Heron, an expert on reef science at James Cook University, said: “We see on the reef that many water quality targets have not been met, despite a decade of targeted awareness around that.”
The Greens ocean spokesperson, Peter Whish-Wilson, said the report was “a stunning work of spin” that suggested the reef’s future was rosy, “when we all know just one more marine heatwave would devastate any tentative recovery”.
The Greenpeace Australia Pacific climate campaigner, Martin Zavan, said the government’s submission “reeks of hypocrisy” because it had refused to update its 2030 climate targets before last year’s Glasgow summit.
Richard Leck, the head of oceans at WWF Australia, said the government’s $1bn pledge was welcome, but it was a “continuation of existing funding” rather than a significant increase.
He said in 2021 Unesco had asked the government to deliver an emissions reduction plan that was consistent with keeping global heating to 1.5C.
Analysts have said the government’s current 2030 emissions reduction targets are more aligned with global heating of 3C by the end of the century, rather than 1.5C.
Lissa Schindler, Great Barrier Reef campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said until the Morrison government developed a credible climate change plan, it could not claim to have a “proper plan for the reef”.
Jon Day, a former federal government official on world heritage, now a researcher at James Cook University, said the report would be used to lobby members of the committee in the lead up to the next meeting in July.
“They will be taking these highlights to everyone on the committee and using it to make it sound as if they really, really care. I think they do care, but the reality is they don’t care enough.”
