Unesco has urged Australia to set more ambitious climate targets for the Great Barrier Reef in a list of recommendations to preserve its status as a world heritage site.
The report, published in Paris late on Monday, did not recommend the reef be placed on a list of sites “in danger” – a threat that has hung over the reef for years – when the 21-country world heritage committee meets next month.
But the report says Australia should be asked to submit a progress report by February 2025, after which the committee “could consider the inclusion of the property on the list of world heritage in danger” at its 2026 meeting.
Unesco also said it had “high concern” that rates of land clearing in catchments that flow into the reef was “incompatible” with targets to cut sediments and nutrients running into the reef.
Australia’s environment minister, Tanya Plibersek, said Unesco’s recommendations were “a huge win” for Queensland, for people working on the reef and for its wildlife.
Unesco expressed “utmost concern” at the mass coral bleaching event that swept across the reef this summer, urging Australia to make public the extent of coral death “as soon as possible”.
Unesco experts wrote: “The current bleaching occurs as part of the fourth global mass bleaching, which is likely impacting at least 30% of the world heritage-listed coral reef properties, and the implications across the world heritage system will also need to be considered further.”
The reef “remains under serious threat, and urgent and sustained action is of utmost priority in order to improve the resilience of the property in a rapidly changing climate”, the report said.
The Unesco report, co-written with scientific experts at the International Union for Conservation of Nature, includes a set of “draft decisions” which act like recommendations for the world heritage committee’s 10-day meeting in India starting on 21 July.
Unesco said Australia needed to continue efforts to reduce pollution running into the reef and to control coral-eating starfish outbreaks.
The federal government on Tuesday pointed to $1.2bn of funding and a list of reef conservation efforts, including its target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030.
Plibersek said Australia had a duty to safeguard the reef and protect it for future generations. “We also know the world is watching us,” she said.
Queensland this year set a target to cut emissions by 75% below 2005 levels by 2035. The state premier, Steven Miles, said protecting the reef was a priority for his government.
Unesco’s recommendation comes after one of the worst summers on record for the reef with widespread and extreme bleaching hitting in the same summer as two cyclones and outbreaks of native coral-eating starfish.
Almost three-quarters of reefs surveyed by government scientists saw at least 10% of corals bleached. Parts of the southern section of the reef saw the highest levels of heat stress ever recorded on the reef.
The committee put Australia on notice last year, saying it would not put the reef on the in danger list but said more action was needed on climate targets and pollution.
The committee asked Australia to report back on progress by February this year, but has since also considered information on the latest bleaching event.
Australia has previously told Unesco it is “on track” to have national climate targets in line with keeping global heating to 1.5C.
The Coalition has said it would not back the country’s current targets if it won the next election, saying they were too ambitious.
Richard Leck, head of oceans at WWF-Australia, said the world heritage committee should be asked to consider the reef’s status in 2025, not 2026.
He said the government needed to commit to a 90% cut to emissions from 2005 levels by 2035, end new fossil fuel projects, support a global phase-out of fossil fuels and take stronger steps to slow land clearing.
Lissa Schindler, reef campaigner at the Australian Marine Conservation Society, said if Australia did not improve its climate targets and do more to stop land clearing and pollution, then an in danger listing was inevitable.
The reef has flirted with the world heritage in danger list for years, most recently in 2021 when the Morrison government launched a major lobbying push on members of the committee after Unesco said climate impacts and pollution from farms qualified the reef for the danger list.
The committee went against Unesco’s advice after the Australian government, which at the time was a member of the committee, took several positions in favour of other countries and against Unesco’s advice, including one deal with Spain, whose Unesco ambassador said was agreed in return for Spain supporting Australia’s position on the reef.
