Climate Action Merribek: people in Brunswick, Coburg, Fawkner and Glenroy wanting action on climate change

Protest at Peter Khalil ignoring constituents on climate policy

March 17, 2023 at 4:00 pm John Englart Leave a comment

At short notice climate activists set up a protest outside Peter Khalil’s office on Sydney Road on Thursday March 16.

Climate Groups in Merri-bek have accused The Wills Labor MP of failing to consult, engage and listen to local groups and constituents on climate policy, particularly the formulation of the current Safeguard mechanism and use of carbon offsets, along with no proposal by the Labor Federal Government to stop the 113 new coal and gas projects in the development pipeline.

Peter Khalil promised after the last election in May 2022 to establish a climate and environment citizen advisory group for his electorate. We are yet to see any progress on this, despite several interactions asking about progress.

The IPCC 6th assessment reports, the International Energy Agency, and the UN Secretary General have all called for all new coal and gas projects to be stopped. Scientists have highlighted that emissions from present fossil fuels in production are likely to already push us beyond the 1.5C temperature target as laid down in the Paris Agreement in 2015.

The current proposed Safeguard Mechanism that applies to the 215 major polluters, allows for companies to buy 100 percent of carbon credits instead of doing actual point of source emissions reduction. It allows Fossil fuel producers under the scheme to buy offset credits rather than reduce emissions.

Then there are the integrity issues with using Carbon Offset credits. Carbon Offsets have long been a source of financial rorting, and suffer from major carbon accounting integrity issues. Read the Climate Analytics February 2023 report on Why offsets are not a viable alternative to cutting emissions (1).

Climate Action Merribek has had a request to meet with Peter Khalil since February 21, with no formal aknowledgment of this request.

Peter Khalil signed the climate emergency declaration in December 2016. The Labor Party adopted climate emergency as part of their National Policy Platform in 2018(2), but have failed to aknowledge this involves no new fossil fuel projects for coal, oil or gas. Khalil was closely questioned by citizens on the ALP policy of gas expansion at a candidates forum in May 2019.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) warned that no new fossil fuel projects should be started in a report in 2021.(3) Other researchers have also confirmed this.(4)

The IPCC sixth assessment Working Group III report published in April 2022 outlined that “greatly reduced” fossil fuel use would be “fundamental” to limiting warming. And it warned that existing fossil fuel infrastructure was already sufficient to breach the 1.5C limit.(5)

The UN Secretary General warned in June 2022 that the world has gambled on fossil fuels and lost and called for no new fossil fuel projects to go ahead.(6)

The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in a report published October 2022 mapped out energy transition consistent with reaching the 1.5C temperature target and concluded:

“According to a large consensus across multiple modelled climate and energy
pathways, developing any new oil and gas fields is incompatible with limiting
warming to 1.5°C. Global oil and gas production and consumption must decrease
by at least 65% by 2050.”(7)

Navigating Energy Transitions Mapping the road to 1.5°C, IISD

References

1. Climate Analytics, February 2023, Why offsets are not a viable alternative to cutting emissions https://climateanalytics.org/publications/2023/why-offsets-are-not-a-viable-alternative-to-cutting-emissions/
2. Englart, John, 16 December 2018, Climate Citizen, ALP conference acknowledges climate emergency and IPCC 1.5C report, but not the need to Stop Adani and phase out coal https://takvera.blogspot.com/2018/12/alp-conference-acknowledges-climate.html
3. IEA (International Energy Agency). (2021). Net Zero by 2050: A roadmap for the global energy sector. IEA. https://www.iea.org/reports/net-zero-by-2050
4. Welsby, D., Price, J., Pye, S., & Ekins, P. (2021). Unextractable fossil fuels in a 1.5°C world. Nature, 597, 230–234. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-021-03821-8
5. IPCC Sixth assessment report Working Group III Full report, April 2022, section 2.7.2 Estimates of future CO2 emissions from long-lived infrastructures. Cite: Dhakal, S., J.C. Minx, F.L. Toth, A. Abdel-Aziz, M.J. Figueroa Meza, K. Hubacek, I.G.C. Jonckheere, Yong-Gun Kim, G.F. Nemet, S. Pachauri, X.C. Tan, T. Wiedmann, 2022: Emissions Trends and Drivers. In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [P.R. Shukla, J. Skea, R. Slade, A. Al Khourdajie, R. van Diemen, D. McCollum, M. Pathak, S. Some, P. Vyas, R. Fradera, M. Belkacemi, A. Hasija, G. Lisboa, S. Luz, J. Malley, (eds.)]. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA. doi: 10.1017/9781009157926.004 https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_Chapter02.pdf
6. UN News, 17 June 2022, World has ‘gambled on fossil fuels and lost’, warns Guterres https://news.un.org/en/story/2022/06/1120662
7. Olivier Bois von Kursk, Greg Muttitt, Angela Picciariello, Lucile Dufour, Thijs Van de Graaf, Andreas Goldthau, Diala Hawila, Mohamed Adow, Kyla Tienhaara, Frederic Hans, Thomas Day, Silke Mooldijk, Mara Abbot, Andrew Logan, Navigating Energy Transitions Mapping the road to 1.5°C, IISD, October 2022 https://www.iisd.org/publications/report/navigating-energy-transitions. See also Carbon Brief, 28 Oct 2022, New fossil fuels ‘incompatible’ with 1.5°C goal, comprehensive analysis finds https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/10/fossil-fuels-incompatible-1-5c-goal-energy-climate-change-study/

Entry filed under: campaigns, climate change info, Event, Labors Climate Record, news, rallies & protests. Tags: Carbon Credits, carbon offsets, coal, Gas, Peter Khalil, Safeguard Mechanism, SafeguardOurClimate.