Coal, cumulative impacts, and the Great Barrier Reef

The Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, Australia, covers over 348,000 km 2 of tropical marine ecosystems of global significance. In July 2015, the World Heritage Committee called attention to the cumulative impacts of climate change, poor water quality, and coastal development on the region's outstanding universal value, but stopped short of inscribing the Great Barrier Reef on the List of World Heritage in Danger. Restoring the region's values is hindered by an environmental decision-making process that fails to incorporate cumulative impacts, including the climate change impacts of greenhouse gas emissions sourced from one of Australia's largest exports, thermal coal. We identify policy and processes that enable a more comprehensive consideration of the cumulative effects of coal mining by environmental decision-makers. Implementing cumulative impact assessment requires a collaborative and transparent program of planning and monitoring independent of Government and mine proponents that evaluates local, regional, and global impacts. The future of the Great Barrier Reef depends on transformational change in the cumulative assessment of Australian coal mines

Brunei economy

Brunei Darussalam is a small, oil- and gas-dependent economy, which is continuing to strive for economic diversification and attempting to reduce its dependence on non-renewable resources. The sultanate has good physical infrastructure; free high-quality health care and education for its citizens; no personal income tax or sales taxes; heavily subsidized retail prices for petrol, diesel, electricity, rice and sugar that have remained unchanged for many years; and a relatively high material standard of living