John Englart

Wills MP Peter Khalil endorses climate emergency declaration

Peter Khalil MP endorses climate Emergency Declaration
Peter Khalil MP endorses climate Emergency Declaration

Our Federal MP for Wills, Peter Khalil, sent us this photo of his endorsement of the climate emergency declaration. Great to see our Federal MP stepping up on the climate issue.

This follows Former Wills MP Kelvin Thomson and Batman MP David Feeney signing two days ago. We met with Peter Khalil in early December and had an hour long discussion on the climate issue.

The climate emergency declaration has already been signed by a number of prominent Australians from across the political spectrum, and thousands of Australians. (See the advertisement placed in the Age below). At the start of 2017 kayaker Steve Posselt is Taking climate solutions and the petition down the NSW coast from Ballina then on to Canberra.

21 prominent Australians signed this ad in June 2016 calling for a climate emergency declaration
21 prominent Australians signed this ad in June 2016 calling for a climate emergency declaration (Click to read the ad)

It is a recognition that there is urgency in addressing climate change through emissions reduction and climate adaptation. It should not be a partisan political issue, but be firmly based on the overwhelming science. It is a call on the Australian Parliament to declare a climate emergency and initiate a society-wide mobilisation.

In August 2016 154 Australian scientists signed an open letter to the Australian Government demanded climate policy that matches the science

“While the Paris Agreement remains unbinding and global warming has received minimal attention in the recent elections, governments worldwide are presiding over a large-scale demise of the planetary ecosystems, which threatens to leave large parts of Earth uninhabitable. We call on the Australian government to tackle the root causes of an unfolding climate tragedy and do what is required to protect future generations and nature, including meaningful reductions of Australia’s peak carbon emissions and coal exports, while there is still time. There is no Planet B.”

Climate Change analyst Philip Sutton has already drafted model legislation – ‘Climate Emergency (Restructuring & Mobilisation) Act’, as an example of legislation that could be implemented on a bipartisan basis.

You can join the call and sign the Climate Declaration petition.

Here is Peter Khalil on Skynews (see Facebook post) from 14 December attacking the climate denialists in the Liberal National Party (including Craig Kelly also on the show), especially on the about-turn by Energy and Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg over the prospect of an energy sector emissions intensity scheme being included in the 2017 Climate Change Policy review.

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