The Great Barrier Reef is worth $56 billion.
That's the "total asset value" according to a new Deloitte Access Economics report that calculates the World Heritage site's full economic, social and iconic brand value for the first time.
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Billion dollar reef risk
The impact of climate change and Tropical Cyclone Debbie could cost the Queensland tourism industry $1 billion according to a new report form the Climate Council. Courtesy ABC, the Climate Council.
While many Australians would consider the reef priceless, Deloitte believes you can put a number on it.
It arrived at the $56 billion figure after an extensive six-month analysis that drew on research from dozens of economic and scientific sources, as well as a survey of 1500 people from 10 countries.
At $29 billion, tourism is the biggest contributor to that overall value, followed by $23.8 billion from "indirect or non-use value" – meaning people who haven't yet visited the reef but value knowing it exists. Its value to recreational users – such as weekend divers – is $3.2 billion.
Commissioned by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation, the report finds the reef added $6.4 billion of economic value to the Australian economy in 2015-16, including $3.9 billion in Queensland.
While the reef employs 39,000 people directly, there are 64,000 jobs linked to it nationally, the report found.
To put that in perspective the National Australia Bank creates 34,000 direct jobs, Telstra 33,000 and Qantas 26,000.
Great Barrier Reef Foundation director Steve Sargent said no other Australian asset contributed as much value to "Brand Australia".
"At $56 billion, the reef is valued at more than 12 Sydney Opera Houses," he said.
"This report sends a clear message that the Great Barrier Reef – as an ecosystem, as an economic driver, as a global treasure – is too big to fail."
The survey found people value the reef for a range of reasons – some concrete, such as its importance for tourism, and some abstract, such as the belief that Australia would not be the same without it.
More than 60 per cent of respondents said they were prepared to pay to protect the reef based on its importance to the planet, a belief future generations should be able to visit it, its importance to biodiversity, and feelings that it is morally and ethically right to protect it.
The fo0rmer US vice-president turned environmental campaigner, Al Gore, called the report a much-needed holistic look at the reef's value.
"Any failure to protect this indispensable natural resource would have profound impacts not only to Australia but around the world," he said.
Deloitte Access Economics partner and report author John O'Mahony said the reef was irreplaceable.
"With the reef under threat, our report is a major step in looking to value nature's significance in monetary terms and using this information to help inform what we do to protect and save important natural assets."
The study used a range of economic techniques including input-output tables, econometrics, willingness to pay analysis, sensitivity analysis and the Brand Asset Valuator.
Unprecedented back-to-back coral bleaching events have affected two-thirds of the reef in the past two years.
Record-breaking warm waters along the Queensland coast have triggered widespread bleaching over 1500 kilometres.
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