PARIS: A United Nations-backed mission is recommending that the Great Barrier Reef be added to the list of endangered World Heritage sites, sounding the alarm that without “ambitious, rapid and sustained” climate action the world’s largest coral reef is in peril. The warning came in a report published on Monday following a 10-day mission to the reef last March by officials from UNESCO and the International Union for Conservation of Nature. The reef, a living place of immense variety and beauty on the north-east coast of Australia, has been on UNESCO’s World Heritage List since 1981. Australia’s federal government and Queensland’s regional authorities should adopt more ambitious emission reduction targets.