Our climate is already changing. The world is on average more than 1 degree warmer than pre-industrial levels and July 2023 was the hottest month ever recorded. This is having devastating impacts on nature and ecosystems. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, the counterpart to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), ranks climate change as among the top 5 threats to nature around the world. Global warming of more than 1.5 degrees will kill the majority of coral reefs in the world and endanger human lives through flooding, drought, fires and heatwaves.

We desperately need to reduce carbon emissions. Renewable energy is a way to reduce emissions from industrial processes, heating and transport through electrification. Together, this can reduce global energy emissions by 75%, according to the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA).

Queensland's emissions reduction target is currently 30% by 2030 and net zero by 2050. If everywhere in the world followed this trajectory, we would be on track for nearly 3 degrees of warming, a death sentence for the Reef.