Brisbane, 28 September 2016 – Responding to the Queensland government's Reef 2050 plan progress report, Greenpeace Australia Pacific reef campaigner Shani Tager said:
"To claim Australia has made good progress on protecting the reef during a period in which more than 20% of the Great Barrier Reef's coral was killed during a bleaching event is bizarre.
"A plan to protect the reef that fails to address climate change is not fit for purpose.
"The Reef 2050 plan will fail unless the Queensland and Australian governments realise that to protect the reef, Australia needs to combat global warming.
“We need to see more progress in preventing land clearing in Queensland, but ultimately we have to stop approving new coal mines because the mining and burning of coal is one the main drivers of the bleaching events that damaged the reef earlier this year."