Australia pledges half a billion to restore Great Barrier Reef

Australia pledges half a billion to restore Great Barrier Reef

What has happened?

Australia pledged Aus $500 million ($379 million) in new funding to restore and protect the Great Barrier Reef on Sunday, in what it said would be a game-changer for the embattled natural wonder

Canberra criticised

• Canberra has previously committed more than Aus$2 billion to protect the site over the next decade, but has been criticised for backing a huge coal project by Indian mining giant Adani nearby
• With its heavy use of coal-fired power and relatively small population, Australia is considered one of the world’s worst per-capita greenhouse gas polluters.
• Canberra insists it is taking strong action to address the global threat of climate change, having set an ambitious target to reduce emissions by 26 to 28% from 2005 levels by 2030.

Conservationists view

While the funding was “an important step”, the biggest threat to the reef was global warming and not enough was being done to combat it by embracing clean energy

Target areas

The bulk of the new funding was earmarked to improve water quality by changing farming practices and adopting new technologies and land management

Damage to the reef continues

• Earlier this month, scientists said the site suffered a “catastrophic die-off” of coral during an extended heatwave in 2016, threatening a broader range of reef life than previously feared.
• A study in the journal Nature said some 30% of the reef’s coral perished, the first of an unprecedented two successive years of coral bleaching along the 2,300-km reef.