Extract from The Guardian
Josh Frydenberg says coal ‘vitally important’ after former Great
Barrier Reef official calls said its future depended on an end to mining
Josh Frydenberg has defended Australia’s coal industry as “vitally
important” days after a former Great Barrier Reef authority chief called for a ban on new mines.
Speaking after a forum on the reef with state and territory ministers in Sydney on Friday, the federal environment minister said other countries would simply “fill the void” if Australia did not export coal.
“We have said consistently and publicly that coal is a part of the national and international energy mix and will be so for decades to come,” he said.
“The coal sector is vitally important in Queensland as it is in other parts of the country, it helps to meet the energy security of millions of people across the world, creating billions of dollars of export income, and employing many people.”
The government has until Thursday to hand Unesco a progress report outlining its efforts to save the reef, or risk it being listed as “in danger”.
The report will need to show that Australia has properly funded and implemented policies to improve water quality by 2050.
If it does not, Unesco and the World Heritage committee will reconsider the listing for the reef at a meeting next year.
Frydenberg said he was confident the government’s submission would show enormous progress in improving the reef.
But environmental campaigners say the current reporting period has been poor for the reef, with the approval of Australia’s largest coalmine, the impact of the worst bleaching event in the reef’s history and the Queensland parliament’s failure to legislate to stop land clearing in catchment areas.
The government was also revealed to have put pressure on Unesco to remove negative references to Australia and the reef in a previous report on climate change.
Scientists have said current funding levels go nowhere near those required to achieve 2050 targets, and a report card last month gave the reef a D for its overall health for the fifth year in a row.
This week Graeme Kelleher, the Great Barrier Reef marine park authority’s chief for 16 years, said the only real way to save the reef was to stop approving new coalmines.
“Australia cannot have a healthy Great Barrier Reef and a continuing coal industry,” he said.
Frydenberg responded by defending coal, saying Australia’s industry was cleaner than those overseas.
Kelleher told Guardian Australia on Friday that Frydenberg’s comments were typical of the short-sighted approach of the federal and Queensland governments.
He said their efforts continued to focus on “short-term local issues” that were easy to fix, including the reduction of pollutants from the mainland.
“They are not trivial,” he said.
“But the major threat to the Great Barrier Reef and to all the coral reefs of the world comes from climate change, from the burning of fossil fuels.”
“They are looking at the very short term, because even with a global increase in temperature of two degrees the reef will be severely damaged.”
The approval of Adani’s Carmichael mine would have no adverse impact on Australia’s efforts to avoid the “in danger” listing, he said. Adani and state and federal authorities had gone to significant lengths to ensure the mine met strict environmental standards.
Frydenberg and Queensland’s environment minister, Steven Miles, said positive steps had been made towards fulfilling the Reef 2050 plan.
That included a ban on the disposal of dredge material, stricter cane farming and grazing measures and boosting funding to control crown-of-thorns starfish.
The government announced $45m to restore catchment zones in Burdekin, Fitzroy and Cape York, aimed at preventing sediment run-off.
Kelleher welcomed that funding, saying it would be of significant benefit to the reef.
“That $45m is a really good investment and it will reduce stress on the Great Barrier Reef, without any doubt.”
Miles said the “great shame” of the submission would be the failure to legislate to stop land clearing in reef catchment areas. That legislation was blocked by the LNP opposition in Queensland.
“We have to explain to the global community that we failed to implement one of the very important commitments, and that was to reduce land clearing in Queensland,” Miles said.
Shani Tager, reef campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said on Friday the plan to save the reef would only be credible if it included genuine measures to tackle climate change.
Tager said she was doubtful that the government could achieve its 2050 goals, given the current track record, and highlighted the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal as a particular threat to the reef.
“We think to have a credible plan to prom the reef you have to have a plan to tackle climate change and we think this starts with banning coal mining,” she said.
One nation leader Pauline Hanson travelled to the reef on Friday with colleagues Malcolm Roberts and Brian Burston in an effort to prove it is healthy.
They are travelling to the south of the reef, not the north, which has recently experienced the worst bleaching event recorded in its history.
Speaking after a forum on the reef with state and territory ministers in Sydney on Friday, the federal environment minister said other countries would simply “fill the void” if Australia did not export coal.
“We have said consistently and publicly that coal is a part of the national and international energy mix and will be so for decades to come,” he said.
“The coal sector is vitally important in Queensland as it is in other parts of the country, it helps to meet the energy security of millions of people across the world, creating billions of dollars of export income, and employing many people.”
The government has until Thursday to hand Unesco a progress report outlining its efforts to save the reef, or risk it being listed as “in danger”.
The report will need to show that Australia has properly funded and implemented policies to improve water quality by 2050.
If it does not, Unesco and the World Heritage committee will reconsider the listing for the reef at a meeting next year.
Frydenberg said he was confident the government’s submission would show enormous progress in improving the reef.
But environmental campaigners say the current reporting period has been poor for the reef, with the approval of Australia’s largest coalmine, the impact of the worst bleaching event in the reef’s history and the Queensland parliament’s failure to legislate to stop land clearing in catchment areas.
The government was also revealed to have put pressure on Unesco to remove negative references to Australia and the reef in a previous report on climate change.
Scientists have said current funding levels go nowhere near those required to achieve 2050 targets, and a report card last month gave the reef a D for its overall health for the fifth year in a row.
This week Graeme Kelleher, the Great Barrier Reef marine park authority’s chief for 16 years, said the only real way to save the reef was to stop approving new coalmines.
“Australia cannot have a healthy Great Barrier Reef and a continuing coal industry,” he said.
Frydenberg responded by defending coal, saying Australia’s industry was cleaner than those overseas.
Kelleher told Guardian Australia on Friday that Frydenberg’s comments were typical of the short-sighted approach of the federal and Queensland governments.
He said their efforts continued to focus on “short-term local issues” that were easy to fix, including the reduction of pollutants from the mainland.
“They are not trivial,” he said.
“But the major threat to the Great Barrier Reef and to all the coral reefs of the world comes from climate change, from the burning of fossil fuels.”
“They are looking at the very short term, because even with a global increase in temperature of two degrees the reef will be severely damaged.”
The approval of Adani’s Carmichael mine would have no adverse impact on Australia’s efforts to avoid the “in danger” listing, he said. Adani and state and federal authorities had gone to significant lengths to ensure the mine met strict environmental standards.
Frydenberg and Queensland’s environment minister, Steven Miles, said positive steps had been made towards fulfilling the Reef 2050 plan.
That included a ban on the disposal of dredge material, stricter cane farming and grazing measures and boosting funding to control crown-of-thorns starfish.
The government announced $45m to restore catchment zones in Burdekin, Fitzroy and Cape York, aimed at preventing sediment run-off.
Kelleher welcomed that funding, saying it would be of significant benefit to the reef.
“That $45m is a really good investment and it will reduce stress on the Great Barrier Reef, without any doubt.”
Miles said the “great shame” of the submission would be the failure to legislate to stop land clearing in reef catchment areas. That legislation was blocked by the LNP opposition in Queensland.
“We have to explain to the global community that we failed to implement one of the very important commitments, and that was to reduce land clearing in Queensland,” Miles said.
Shani Tager, reef campaigner at Greenpeace Australia Pacific, said on Friday the plan to save the reef would only be credible if it included genuine measures to tackle climate change.
Tager said she was doubtful that the government could achieve its 2050 goals, given the current track record, and highlighted the expansion of the Abbot Point coal terminal as a particular threat to the reef.
“We think to have a credible plan to prom the reef you have to have a plan to tackle climate change and we think this starts with banning coal mining,” she said.
One nation leader Pauline Hanson travelled to the reef on Friday with colleagues Malcolm Roberts and Brian Burston in an effort to prove it is healthy.
They are travelling to the south of the reef, not the north, which has recently experienced the worst bleaching event recorded in its history.
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