We all know the Great Barrier Reef is in dire straits, but now it’s official. The International Union for the Conservation of Nature, a global authority, has just declared the reef’s conservation status as “critical”.

As Jon Day and Scott Heron write today, the finding is sobering, but not entirely unexpected.

This year, the reef suffered its third mass coral bleaching event in five years. Water quality remains poor even after years of interventions, and ocean acidification and coastal development also threaten the natural wonder.

The assessment will come as an embarrassment to the Morrison government, for several reasons. First, it damages Australia’s tourism reputation on the world stage. Second, it’s a reflection of our failure to act on climate change – something at which Australia excels.

Nowhere is that failure more obvious than in the Morrison government’s “gas-led recovery” from the pandemic.

As Tim Baxter writes today, emissions from Australia’s gas industry rose in the year to June, even taking into account lockdown restrictions. The emissions are cancelling out gains won by Australia’s renewables boom, and put people and places – including the Great Barrier Reef – in further climate jeopardy.

Over the past 12 months, we on the environment and energy desk have focused on the big issues affecting Earth and its future. And they don’t come much bigger than the climate crisis, Australia’s recovery from its summer bushfires and the global transition to low-carbon energy.

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