Environment Group Exposes Hypocrisy of Bligh Government on Great Barrier Reef

Six Degrees have accused the Queensland Bligh Government of blatant hypocrisy in its participation in the ‘Reefocus Summit’ this Friday and its supposed commitment to saving the reef. While the joint Australian and Queensland Government’s Great Barrier Reef summit aims to ensure, protect and conserve the reef ecosystem, Friends of the Earth maintain that the greater threat to the reef comes from climate change linked to the continued support and expansion of the coal industry by the Bligh Government.

“Inside the Reefocus Summit, the Queensland government will be discussing how to save the reef in the short term. Meanwhile the rampant expansion of the coal industry with the support of the Bligh government means saving the reef for now will simply be delaying its inevitable demise through climate change“, says Friends of the Earth spokesperson Emma Brindal.

“It's important that this summit is being held to progress meaningful action to counter the effects of pollution on the reef. However if the Bligh government was serious about saving the reef they would be planning a phase out of coal production in Queensland and taking more than just tokenistic action on climate change,” says Ms Brindal.

Despite the risks to the reef posed by the actions of Queensland coal mining industries, no representative of the mining industry will be in attendance at the summit. Their absence, says Ms Brindal, displays a double standard, where limited accountability for environmental damage is applied to the coal mining industry under the Bligh Government, when compared with the agricultural, fishing and tourism industries.

The burning of coal is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions worldwide and Queensland’s coal plays a significant part in this. Queensland’s coal produces about 378 million tonnes of greenhouse emissions per annum, in comparison to Australia’s total of 550 million tonnes of domestic emissions.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has found that a rise of 1°C in mean global temperatures and, correspondingly, sea surface temperatures is the maximum that we should aim for if we ensure the preservation of coral reefs. This means a rapid shift away from the burning of coal to renewable energy is urgently required.

Great Barrier Reef is not only a natural heritage icon of world renown, but also provides almost 70,000 jobs and generates more than 7 billion dollars annually for the Queensland economy.