Australia could avoid punishingly long heatwaves and boost its iconic Great Barrier Reef’s chances of survival if global warming is limited to 1.5℃ rather than 2℃, Phys.Org reports. These are the findings of a report released by the Climate Institute and compiled by the international agency Climate Analytics.

The new research suggests that limiting total global warming to 1.5℃ could significantly limit the severity of extreme weather events like heatwaves in Australia. As Phys.Org reports, “Heatwaves in southern Australia would be an average of five days shorter, and the hottest days a degree cooler. In the north, hot spells would be 20-30 days shorter than the 60-day heatwaves potentially in store if warming hits 2℃.”

What’s more, limiting warming to 1.5℃ could be the only chance of survival for Australia’s iconic Great Barrier Reef.  1.5℃ would allow “some chance for a fraction of the world’s coral reefs to survive”, the report says. The report gives a grim outlook for the reef under in a 2 degree world, stating that the world’s coral reefs would have a “very limited chance” of survival.