GREAT BARRIER REEF

A United Nations-backed mission is recommending that the Great Barrier Reef be added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites, sounding the alarm that without “ambitious, rapid and sustained” climate action the world’s largest coral reef is in peril.

Australia’s new government plans to prevent development of a coal mine because of its potential impact on the nearby Great Barrier Reef.

Australian government scientists say 91% of the Great Barrier Reef coral surveyed this year was bleached in the fourth mass event in seven years.

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The Australian government has pledged to spend another 1 billion Australian dollars ($704 million) over nine years on improving the health of the Great Barrier Reef after stalling a UNESCO decision on downgrading the natural wonder’s World Heritage status.

Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is spawning in an explosion of color as the World Heritage-listed natural wonder recovers from life-threatening coral bleaching episodes.

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.

The Chinese host of this year’s meeting of the U.N. World Heritage Committee is defending its proposal to label the Great Barrier Reef as “in danger” against Australian government suspicion that China influenced the finding for political reasons.

Australia says it will fight against plans to downgrade the Great Barrier Reef’s World Heritage status due to climate change, while environmentalists are applauding the U.N. World Heritage Committee’s proposal.

A leading conservation agency is warning that climate change is damaging the U.N.' most cherished heritage sites. Sixteen World Heritage sites have deteriorated since the last World Heritage Outlook was released three years ago, while only eight improved, said the International Union for Conservation of Nature, made up of governments and civil society groups and advises UNESCO on natural threats to those sites. “Natural World Heritage sites are amongst the world’s most precious places, and we owe it to future generations to protect them,” IUCN Director-General Bruno Oberle said. It said while 63% of the heritage sites are classified as “good” or “good with some concerns,” 30% are of “significant concern” and 7% are in “critical” shape. ___Read all of AP’s stories about climate change at https://apnews.com/hub/Climate.