Bob Carr Calls Out UNESCO to Take Blue Mountains Threat Seriously

Former New South Wales premier and foreign minister Bob Carr has written to Unesco, requesting the organization to send a team to the Blue Mountains to examine the region's world heritage classification, saying that the proposed Warragamba Dam raising might have a negative impact.

Carr's request that Unesco sends a team to visit a world heritage site mirrors the Morrison government's request for an in-person examination of the reef before deciding whether it can be designated as world heritage "in danger." The consequence of repeated mass coral bleaching episodes connected to global warming has prompted the proposal to alter the reef's classification.

Fighting the Dam

Whereas Carr's objective is to block a development that may harm a world heritage site, the federal government hopes to use a Unesco visit to argue that it is doing a fine job safeguarding the reef and cannot prevent coral loss climate problem on its own.

Harry Burkitt of the Colong Foundation for Wilderness, organizing a campaign against the Warragamba Dam development, endorsed Carr's position.

"When the NSW government has expressed its indifference in complying to our global heritage responsibilities, a Unesco monitoring mission is more than warranted," he said.

The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, is scheduled to make a decision this week on whether to modify the reef's world heritage classification, which prompted her to embark on an ongoing lobbying tour to Europe in an attempt to avoid an "in danger" ranking.

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