The Prime Minister has pledged $1 billion for the Great Barrier Reef, while a new report shows the immense risk it faces. 

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has promised that a re-elected Coalition would put up $1 billion for Great Barrier Reef conservation projects over the next decade, while still campaigning to prevent the reef being listed as “in danger” by the world heritage committee.

The funding pledge was made just days before Australia sent its report to Unesco about plans to protect the Reef, ahead of a critical meeting of the world heritage committee scheduled for July in Russia.

The government’s plans have been criticised for being too weak, as they are linked to broader greenhouse reduction measures that have also been deemed inadequate. 

Meanwhile, stats show that temperatures over the Great Barrier Reef in December were the highest on record. Scientists have warned that the Reef is on the verge of another mass bleaching of corals. 

Experts from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) say heat stress over the corals is now at a level “unprecedented in the satellite record”. Minimum temperatures for more than 80 per cent of the Reef were higher than previous maximums for that time of year. 

“There’s never been heat stress like that in our records,” says Dr William Skirving, of NOAA’s Coral Reef Watch.

“It’s completely out of character and speaks to the fact that the minimum temperatures were higher than the previous maximums. This is almost certainly a climate change signal.

“Being a scientist in this field in this day and age is sometimes a bit nightmarish. Sometimes I wish I knew a little bit less.”

Alos this week,  scientists from the University of Leeds, Texas Tech University and James Cook University have published a study showing almost no corals on the planet will escape severe bleaching once global heating reaches 1.5℃.

Just 0.2 per cent of reefs will escape at least one bleaching outbreak every decade after warming hits 1.5℃, according to the research.

More details are accessible here.