UN climate change report excludes Great Barrier reefs from in-danger list

Zee Media Bureau

New Delhi: The United Nation (UN) stripped every single reference of Australia from its of report on climate change's impact on World Heritage site after Australian government concerns that it could harm tourism, according to The Guardian reports.

The report is published jointly by UNESCO, the Union of Concerned Scientists and United Nations Environmental Program (UNEP).

Initially, the draft report mentioned three Australian sites in their in-danger list- a complete chapter on coral bleaching in the Great Barrier reef and two short sections on devastating forest fires of Kakadu and Tasmania.

But after the objections by the Australian Department of Environment, UN dropped all the references in its final version of the report.

A departmental spokesperson told the Guardian that “negative commentary about the status of world heritage properties impacted on tourism” and they were concerned “the framing of the report confused two issues – the world heritage status of the sites and risks arising from climate change and tourism”.

The Great Barrier Reef is Australia's crucial tourism attraction and helps in generating a significant amount of revenue for the country.

(With inputs from The Guardian)