Desperately preventing the Great Barrier Reef from entering the endangered list, the Australian government was approved for "political manipulation" of the World Heritage Assessment

　　[Global Times Special Correspondent in Australia Muzixi Wang Huicong] In order to prevent the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) from including the Great Barrier Reef on the "List of World Heritage in Danger", the Australian government has fully demonstrated its hypocrisy.

According to a report by the British Financial Times on the 22nd, before the World Heritage Conference will vote on the assessment of the Great Barrier Reef on the 23rd, Australia launched a "crazy lobbying operation", sparing no effort to try to influence the world composed of 21 countries Heritage Committee.

The Australian government also threatened that if UNESCO insists on including the Great Barrier Reef on the “endangered” list, the organization’s reputation “may be damaged”.

According to the report, scientists and environmental groups warned Canberra that such aggressive lobbying will further lead to the "politicization" of the world heritage protection system.

"The real irony is that the Australian government accused the committee of assessing'politically motivated' and then launched a crazy political lobbying operation." Richard, head of ocean affairs at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) De Lake said.

　　The 44th UNESCO World Heritage Conference is being held in Fuzhou, China.

CNN reported on the 22nd that the conference will vote on whether the Great Barrier Reef, which is included in the World Heritage List, should be officially marked as "endangered" on Friday.

This designation means that the site is under threat, and if no action is taken to resolve the problem, it may lose its World Heritage status.

"Australia is desperately trying to avoid this situation through last-minute lobbying, including taking ambassadors to snorkel on the Great Barrier Reef." According to the Financial Times, last week, Australia's environment minister went to Europe for a series of lobbying trips.

Australia's Great Barrier Reef Special Envoy Warren Enz even invited some foreign ambassadors to Australia to experience snorkeling in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef to show them the ecological health of the Great Barrier Reef. Among them, 9 ambassadors are from current member states of the World Heritage Committee.

　　Regarding the results of lobbying, there are differences in media reports.

According to CNN and the Financial Times, Australia’s efforts may have been “rewarded”, and “12 out of the 21 countries of the World Heritage Committee do not seem to support listing the Great Barrier Reef as endangered”, and the relevant assessment may be delayed until 2023. Years, but this will depend on the result of the vote on Friday.

Australia's "Queensland Post" said on the 21st that Australia still has one vote to prevent the Great Barrier Reef from being listed as "endangered."

　　“The debate over UNESCO’s status has become the front line of the battle between the conservative Australian government, a laggard in the field of climate policy, and environmentalists.” The Financial Times stated that the Australian government has so far not promised to achieve “net” by 2050. zero emission".

Given that the World Heritage Conference is being chaired by China’s Vice Minister of Education Tian Xuejun, this has also triggered Canberra’s questioning of “Beijing’s influence in international institutions”.

Tian Xuejun said this week that the proposal to include Australia's Great Barrier Reef on the "List of World Heritage in Danger" is based on scientific data submitted by the Australian authorities to the World Heritage Committee.

This includes a report issued in 2019 by the Australian government agency that manages the Great Barrier Reef. The report concluded that the prospects for the Great Barrier Reef have become very bleak after the occurrence of multiple coral bleaching incidents related to rising water temperatures.

Tian Xuejun said that Australia, as a member country of the World Heritage Committee, should be aware of this situation, and should pay attention to the opinions of professional evaluation agencies, and earnestly do a good job in world heritage protection, instead of unfounded unprovoked actions against UNESCO and professional evaluation agencies Blame.

　　According to the Financial Times, scientists and environmental groups have also warned Canberra that their aggressive lobbying may further lead to the "politicization" of the world heritage protection system.

They also stated that Australia’s attempt to shift its focus to China is part of Canberra’s attempt to engage in diplomatic quarrels and distract people.

The report quoted oceanographer Charlie Veron as saying, "The'endangered' list has nothing to do with China. This is related to the (Australian) government's unwillingness to take responsibility for any issues related to climate change, whether it is the plight of the Great Barrier Reef or The recent bushfires."

　　The Australian Barrier Reef Special Envoy also argued that his concern that listing the Great Barrier Reef as "endangered" would imply that all the efforts made so far to protect the coral reef are worthless.

But the "Financial Times" stated that most scientists and environmentalists disagree with this statement and stated that Australia's position is full of hypocrisy.

"A process that has been strongly promoted in science (referring to the resolution to include the Great Barrier Reef on the Endangered List) is being manipulated by (Australia) and presented as a political process, although it is clearly not." WWF Marine Affairs is responsible Richard Lake said.

　　"The value of the Great Barrier Reef to Australia is immeasurable," John Tanzer, former executive director of the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority and WWF Marine Project Officer, said on the Mongabay website on the 21st. "But the Australian government cannot say that the World Heritage List recipients Respect and use this to promote the annual tourism industry of the Great Barrier Reef, which is worth 5.7 billion Australian dollars, and now claims that it is a scam that can be easily manipulated by political forces." The article said, “The Australian government’s criticism is untenable” and UNESCO has no political motivation to “downgrade” the Great Barrier Reef. "I beg the government and my fellow Australians: don't let politics hinder science. The world is watching and the clock is ticking."