- UNEP Limiting Overshoot report must be catalyst for stronger climate action, Australia must slash emissions and reject new fossil fuel projects
- Bleaching reefs, algal blooms show what is at stake with every fraction of warming
A major new United Nations climate report must be a catalyst for stronger climate action and an end to new fossil fuel projects in Australia, the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) said after the report’s release today.
The new UN Environment Programme report, Limiting Overshoot: Navigating exceedance of 1.5°C and pathways towards return, finds the world has entered the period in which average global warming is expected to exceed 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.
AMCS Chief Executive Paul Gamblin said the report demands greater urgency from governments to cut emissions and it makes the fight for every fraction of a degree even more important.
“This report lands just as Australian governments continue to facilitate new offshore oil and gas projects,” Mr Gamblin said. “We cannot allow our governments to bend to corporate wishes and stoke the fires of climate disaster. This is the moment for courage and leadership.
“The message is clear: slashing emissions now and stopping approvals of new fossil fuel projects must be done now to keep the overshoot as low and as short as possible.
“Every fraction of a degree matters for the ocean. Australians are already seeing what an abnormally overheated ocean can do, from repeated mass coral bleaching to the devastating algal bloom in South Australia.
“Between 2023 and 2025, more than 80 per cent of the world’s tropical coral reefs experienced bleaching-level heat stress. The report warns warm-water corals could undergo irreversible changes during an overshoot of 1.5°C even if temperatures are eventually brought down.
“These reefs support extraordinary marine life, fisheries, communities and livelihoods. Once they’re gone, we cannot assume we can simply bring them back.
“And yet here in Australia, Woodside’s proposed gigantic Browse gas project would open up a massive new source of fossil fuel pollution next to Scott Reef, one of our most extraordinary and important coral reef ecosystems.
“We cannot keep approving new fossil fuel projects while watching our reefs bleach from the warming those fossil fuels are driving.
“The decision now is how much more heating – and how much more damage – we allow. How much further damage will we pass on to our children?
“The lower and shorter the overshoot, the better chance we give Australia’s vital marine ecosystems, and our world-class reefs such as Scott Reef, Ningaloo and the Great Barrier Reef.
“Every fraction of a degree of avoided heating and harm is worth fighting for.”
