Avoiding a "World Heritage in Danger" listing for the Great Barrier Reef should be celebrated. The reputational damage to Australia would have caused lasting damage to the reef's tourism industry and the people whose livelihoods depend on it.

UNESCO's draft decision ultimately came down to how seriously they thought Australia was taking the threats of pollution run-off, invasive species and port development to our prized natural asset.

The prospect of an "in danger" listing forced Australian governments to take these problems seriously after riding their luck for too long.

As a result, hundreds of millions of additional dollars have been committed to stopping pollution run-off, and curbs on port development are coming into effect, in particular a stop to the laughable proposition of dumping dredge sludge in the reef's waters.

The trick is now ensuring these plans are followed through and the health of the reef actually turns around. UNESCO is recommending regular updates as a check against backsliding.

But while a listing is off the table for now, a proxy war still rages. That war is about coal.

About 800 kilometres inland from the coral and fish is the Galilee Basin. There, huge companies such as Indian giants GVK and Adani are pushing to develop giant new coal mines.

Part of the Abbott government's motivation for its massive diplomatic push to stop any listing was concern about the boost it would give environmentalists in their campaign against the mines, and in particular in stopping banks investing in the projects.

The government wants the mines built, and talks up the jobs and investment they would bring. When Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited India in April she told local TV the government was "very focused on ensuring these projects go ahead".

For green groups, it is about making one of the world's most beloved environmental sites a global symbol for the damage coal causes.

In particular, they pointed to the port developments that had so concerned UNESCO, which will be export points for coal.

The other link, and the one as a nation we don't really like talking about, is that burning the coal from these enormous mines will generate huge amounts of greenhouse gas emissions – even by global standards – which will warm the planet dangerously.

And we know global warming will be a disaster for the reef.

In its fifth assessment report released last year, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the reef was expected to degrade under all future climate change scenarios due to increased coral bleaching, disease and mortality.

The federal government knows this, too. Its 2014 reef outlook report deemed climate change its biggest threat, one already having an impact and likely to have far-reaching consequences for decades to come.

Headway may have been made on pollution and ports, but coal and climate still looms. It's a problem the nation is yet to reconcile.