The Great Barrier Reef is one of the worlds’ natural wonders, however, it is under threat from natural and human processes. Principal amongst these is climate change, which poses the greatest threat to the long survival of the Reef (GBRMPA, 2009 and 2012). As managers of the Reef, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (GBRMPA) has an imperative to lead global efforts to address climate change. Being aware of the climate footprints of Reef users and looking for ways to reduce them is globally responsible practice and leadership (GBRMPA, 2012). The greenhouse gas emissions of Marine Park users are minor from a global perspective, but efforts to reduce Park user emissions and to adapt to changing climatic conditions are of global importance given the iconic status of the Reef. Not only do Marine Park users emit greenhouse gases, the Reef and Park users are highly vulnerable to the impacts of changing climatic conditions. Many of the impacts will be direct, but others will be indirect through knock on effects that are not yet fully understood. Previous GBRMPA environmental policies and management tools did not articulate how climate change should be managed (GBRMPA, 2012). To address this situation, the GBRMPA has been working to incorporate greenhouse gas emissions and climate change adaptation considerations into its environmental assessment and management tools. This has included day-to-day decision-making on environmental applications, conditioning of environmental approvals, Authority strategic assessments and organisational policy. This has required the GBRMPA to build its approach from the ground up, through collaboration between GBRMPA staff, project consultants and intergovernmental consultations. With greenhouse gas emissions tracking on a pathway to exceed atmospheric concentrations of 400ppm, the imperative to reduce global concentrations of greenhouse gases is becoming ever more urgent. Higher atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases raise the potential of more dramatic climate change impacts. The GBRMPA now incorporates climate change considerations into its environmental assessment and approval decision-making. The approach that has been developed is risk and vulnerability based, it sensitively differentiates between small and larger scale operations such as navigational markers through to pontoons and major ports. Key to the management approach has been the development of a more detailed understanding of the climate footprint of Marine Park users, which has enabled climate change to be fully integrated into the Authority’s environmental assessment and management processes, rather than conducting standalone assessments as occurs in many terrestrial and marine jurisdictions.