Australia’s Great Barrier Reef can survive if global warming limited to 1.5 degrees, study finds

An Australian study found most of the World Heritage-listed reef has experienced bleaching, which is a stress response by overheated corals

But corals can adapt and even thrive if global warming is kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius, as discussed at the COP26 United Nations climate conference

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Reef fish swim above recovering coral colonies on the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, Australia. Photo: Reuters

Published: 10:50am, 5 Nov 2021Updated: 8:58pm, 5 Nov 2021

A study released on Friday by an Australian university looking at multiple catastrophes hitting the Great Barrier Reef has found for the first time that only 2 per cent of its area has escaped bleaching since 1998, then the world’s hottest year on record.

If global warming is kept to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the maximum rise in average global temperature that was the focus of the COP26 United Nations climate conference, the mix of corals on the Barrier Reef will change but it could still thrive, said the study’s lead author Professor Terry Hughes, of the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

“If we can hold global warming to 1.5 degrees global average warming then I think we’ll still have a vibrant Great Barrier Reef,” he said.

Bleaching is a stress response by overheated corals during heatwaves, where they lose their colour and many struggle to survive.

The study by James Cook University in Australia’s Queensland state found that 80 per cent of the World Heritage-listed wonder has experienced severe bleaching since 2016.

“Even the most remote, most pristine parts of the Great Barrier Reef have now bleached severely at least once,” Hughes said.