Both major parties battling to govern Australia after the elections on 2 July have done their best to ignore the most important issue of the moment 鈥� the fate of the Great Barrier Reef.
Only widespread public outrage about record levels of damage to the reef has diverted both the Liberal and Labor parties from their focus on jobs and the economy, and into doing something for this iconic habitat.
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The Liberals have just , with a focus on improving water quality. Labor for its part had already pledged half a billion dollars for research and other measures such as reef management.
Neither is anywhere near enough, and nor will it get to grips with the real problem.
Public concern was sparked after the recent El Ni帽o, a periodic warming of large parts of the Pacific Ocean, sent damaging conditions off Australia into overdrive.
The impact was catastrophic. A great underwater heatwave rolled in, causing severe bleaching, followed by coral death, in the northern part of the reef.
The damage was very . It was far more extensive, and corals on the outer part of the barrier 鈥� normally relatively safe because of cooling by oceanic water 鈥� suffered.
Among them was Opal reef, famed for its astonishing coral structures. I saw the impact. Ninety per cent of its corals were affected, with the staghorn and plate corals devastated.
The problem is that by 2012 50 per cent of the Barrier Reef鈥檚 coral was already dead. This latest event has killed a further 22 per cent of the survivors. And such extreme conditions will become more common.
It is not just the corals that are going. Rising seas are killing turtle eggs, and have exterminated land animals dependent on the reefs. The rat-like Bramble Cay melomys, which was unique to the Great Barrier Reef, is the first mammal driven to extinction by human-induced climate change.
Missing the point
Both Labor and Liberal pledges largely miss the point. The main peril the reef faces is global greenhouse gas emissions which that can damage coral even in the absence of El Ni帽o. Ironically, the Liberals鈥� A$1 billion would be diverted from the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, one of Australia鈥檚 main tools for cleaning up the nation鈥檚 energy sector.
If we carry on as now, within five years there will be enough greenhouse gas in the atmosphere to carry global temperatures to 1.5 潞C above the pre-industrial average. In the circumstances, only a state of global emergency aimed at saving the reef would be sufficient to give it a chance.
Australia is in an extremely strong position to lead in this. Its electricity sector is dominated by 21 coal-fired power plants, which include some of the oldest, dirtiest and least efficient in the developed world.
A report by researchers at the University of Oxford鈥檚 Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment has pointed out that if 290 of these kind of coal plants closed around the world in the next few years, there is a .
An Australian government that is serious about giving the Great Barrier Reef a chance of survival would announce the closure of the country鈥檚 worst coal plants, giving it credibility on the international stage. It could then use its foreign aid budget to assist other countries to close theirs.
More would need to be done to drive down emissions and deploy clean energy technologies, including 鈥渢hird way鈥� methods that have the potential to draw carbon dioxide out of the air at scale. And of course billions should be spent on research, improving water quality and other environmental outcomes.
But in the absence of other actions, the money pledged thus far to 鈥渟ave the reef鈥� is simply fiddling while Rome burns.
