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Australian content removed from UNESCO climate change report

UNESCO climate change report lead author disappointed Australian content removed, ABC Radio, The World Today  By Sarah Sedghi  27 May 16 The lead author of a United Nations report about climate change threats to World Heritage sites says he is disappointed content about Australia was removed and does not understand why it was done.

The report initially included information about the Great Barrier Reef, as well as Kakadu and the Tasmanian Wilderness.

Adam Markham, the deputy director of climate and energy with the Union of Concerned Scientists and the lead author of report, said the report and what was removed was important work in understanding the risks to world heritage sites like the Great Barrier Reef, and how to protect them.

But the Environment Department expressed concerns about Australian World Heritage properties being included, and at its request, those references disappeared from the final document.

The report, authored by UNESCO, United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and the Union of Concerned Scientists, was designed to give a snapshot of how climate change was affecting World Heritage sites across the globe.

Mr Markham said he knew they had taken out the Great Barrier Reef case study and material on the Tasmanian wilderness and Kakadu National Park, but he did not know why.

“I read in the paper like you did today the reason that the Australian Government gave, that they had put pressure on UNESCO to remove the case study,” he said.

He said he was disappointed those parts were removed. “Firstly we put a lot of work into writing them, and secondly we weren’t able to put anything about Australia in the report and it’s a huge continent, it’s got some amazing World Heritage sites,” he said.

“The Great Barrier Reef in particular is one that everyone knows is under severe threat, not just from human development and coal mining and such, but also from coral bleaching and warming.”

Mr Markham said he does not think any other case studies were removed from the report before its publication, despite about 50 revisions……..

Questions over why Hunt not informed

Senator Waters questioned why Mr Hunt had not been kept in the loop, and called on him to explain why he was not informed.

“The Minister is not doing his job properly if he is not involved in something as serious as a UN report about climate change affecting the Great Barrier Reef,” she said.

“And secondly if it’s true that he didn’t know, then for a start why didn’t he know, and secondly why would the Department do that?

“He would expect them to hide the inconvenient truth, because that’s what this Minister has been trying to do for years and the Department can predict that that’s what its minister wanted.”

Labor’s environment spokesperson Mark Butler said Mr Hunt and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull needed to come clean on whether actions were taken by them or their offices to seek to censor the work of UNESCO………http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-05-27/fair-and-balanced-work-removed-from-un-climate-change-report/7452338

May 28, 2016 - Posted by Christina Macpherson | AUSTRALIA - NATIONAL, climate change - global warming