Australia avoids UNESCO downgrade of Great Barrier Reef

Australia has garnered enough international support to defer an attempt by the United Nations’ cultural organization to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status because of damage caused by climate change

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia on Friday garnered enough international support to defer an attempt by the United Nations’ cultural organization to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status because of damage caused by climate change. UNESCO had recommended that its World Heritage Committee add the world’s largest coral reef ecosystem off the northeast Australian coast to the World Heritage in Danger list, mainly due to rising ocean temperatures. Australian-proposed amendments to the draft decision at a committee meeting in China on Friday would have deferred the “in danger” question until 2023. But Norway moved amendments that put the reef back on the committee’s agenda at its annual meeting next June.