Coalition believes it has numbers to stop Great Barrier Reef being listed as ‘in danger’

Australia’s global lobbying offensive to keep the Great Barrier Reef off the world heritage “in danger” list has secured support from at least nine of the 21-member committee that will make the decision, according to a diplomatic email seen by Guardian Australia.

Australia’s Paris-based ambassador to Unesco, Megan Anderson, said in the email she believed the government had won enough support to delay the decision on the “in danger” listing until at least 2023.

It was sent on Saturday, shortly after the start of a two-week World Heritage Committee meeting in China that will decide whether to change the reef ’s world heritage status. A decision on the reef is expected on Friday.

The federal environment minister, Sussan Ley, was due to return to Australia overnight from an eight-day lobbying trip that included flights to Hungary, France, Spain, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Oman and the Maldives.

The minister’s office said she had met ambassadors from 18 countries either face-to-face or virtually.

The trip was to lobby against a recommendation by the UN’s science and culture organisation, Unesco, that the reef be listed as “world heritage in danger” due to the impact of three mass coral bleaching events in five years, and slow progress to cut pollution from farms and properties.

If the committee agrees, it would be the first time a world heritage site has been placed on the list due to damage from climate change. The committee is