The Diplomat
Spain, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, voted on Friday not to include the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s northwest coast on the List of World Heritage in Danger for the time being.
The Foreign Ministry’s decision was not shared by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge, which is led by the third vice-president, Teresa Ribera, nor by Unidas Podemos, Pedro Sánchez’s government partner.
The Unesco World Heritage Committee, which met virtually from the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou, debated the proposal to classify the Great Barrier Reef as a World Heritage site in danger because the International Union for Conservation of Nature indicated in December that it had gone from “significant concern” to “critical”.
The Australian government opposed the decision and campaigned in other countries, including Spain, to have it rejected and its plan to protect the enclave by 2050 accepted. Spain, through Foreign Affairs, finally gave its backing to Australia, supporting an amendment, so that the situation would be reassessed in 2023.
However, the Ministry of Ecological Transition considers that the Great Barrier Reef is “in a situation of danger” as a result of acidification and the increase in temperature, that is, as a consequence “fundamentally” of the impacts of climate change. For this reason, he said that the “maximum commitment” of Australia and the international community is “fundamental”.
Sources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs consulted by the specialised website Climática defended their support for Australia and the amendment by assuring that “the commitment to vote was already made before the arrival of the current minister. With José Manuel Albares in charge, Spain will continue to fulfil its commitments”. A decision, according to the same sources, that has been “taken jointly by Foreign Affairs and Culture, and in which Ministry of Ecological Transition and Demographic Challenge has also given its opinion”.
For his part, Juan López de Uralde, the president of the Ecological Transition Commission of the Congress and deputy of Unidas Podemos, has posted a video on Twitter in which he demands that the Executive gives explanations and “rectifies”. “This ecosystem deserves full protection. I absolutely condemn and disagree with this vote by the government,” he says in the video, which was picked up by Europa Press. López de Uralde says he does not know “what is behind” the decision and the reasons that have led Foreign Affairs to align itself with the Australian government, which he describes as “denialist”, but warns that “no exchange of votes with any project, whatever it may be, can justify” Spain’s opposition to the protection of the Great Barrier Reef.
