Australia's environment ministers have all agreed that the coral bleaching on the Great Barrier Reef "is alarming" and that "strong and urgent action is needed on climate change".
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But the approvals for the biggest coal mine in the Southern Hemisphere, which will see coal shipped from an expanded port on the Great Barrier Reef's doorstep, are to stay in place.
Extensive aerial and dive surveys have revealed 93 per cent of the reef has been impacted by bleaching, an unprecedented level of destruction, which Australian Research Council Centre for Excellence for Coral Reef Studies head Terry Hughes, described as "like 10 cyclones have come ashore all at once", when it came to the northern tip of the reef.
Of the 520 reefs surveyed, just four showed no signs of bleaching.
Bleaching is caused when the relationship between the algae which live within the tissue of coral, zooxanthellae, and the coral itself, breakdowns. The algae provides 90 per cent of the energy corals need to grow and reproduce, but are severely impacted by heat stress, which includes the water temperature increasing by just one degree.
If conditions return to normal, coral can recover, but it can take years.
The government, which is also attempting to ensure the multi-billion tourism industry the reef supports does not take a hit from the international headlines the bleaching has generated, is also attempting to balance the state's economic need for the resource sector, which includes the Adani Carmichael Mine in the Galilee Basin, and it's environmental responsibility to the reef.
Environment Minister Steven Miles said while a late-night phone hook-up with his counterparts across the nation ended with an agreement that "strong and urgent action" was needed on climate change, there was no agreement on what that action should be.
"But Minister [Greg] Hunt has agreed to hold further weekly talks up until the federal government caretaker period which I think is an important acknowledgement of the urgency with which we need the Federal Government to deliver a more coherent and effective national climate change policy for Australia," Dr Miles said.
The Federal Government has committed to "making further funding commitments to reef water quality", Dr Miles said, while adding that more needed to be done.
Queensland issued the mining licences for the Queensland Adani coal mine earlier this month. Just four days later, Dr Miles called for additional action on climate change.
