On Wednesday Climate Action Merribek and Extinction Rebellion held a protest at Labor MP Peter Khalil’s Sydney Road Coburg Office, calling for no new fossil fuels, end all fossil fuel subsidies, emergency speed climate transition, release the ONI Climate and Security report.

Blinky the giant animatronic puppet accompanied the march, along with the red rebels.

Labor have approved 4 new coal mines, 10 new or extended fossil fuel projects, since coming to power in May 2022. Labor is going ahead with $1.5 billion funding of the Darwin Middlearm Hub, which will establish petrochemical processing and an LNG terminal for export of gas to enable fracking in the Beetaloo Basin, and Santos Barossa Project off the Tiwi Islands.

It is not just in the Northern Territory, Western Australia or Queensland either. Labor is allowing Seismic testing to go ahead in Commonwealth waters in Bass Strait in exploring for new oil and gas. This impacts marine ecosystems.

We know Labor is ramping up Renewables, supporting tripling renewables and doubling energy efficiency at the global level and support those actions, but it needs to be accompanied by rapid phaseout of Fossil Fuels. And it starts with an end to all new Fossil Fuel Projects. No buts

Peter Khalil was one of the few Labor MPs who came out publicly and opposed the Adani coal mine after representations by Climate Action Merribek. In May 2019 at a Wills candidates forum he justified the Labor policy for fossil gas expansion. Climate Action called our MP out on supporting gas expansion in a climate emergency.

Peter Khalil signed the Climate Emergency declaration in 2016.

The science is clear, climate breakdown will escalate unless we phase out Fossil fuels, and rapidly transition to renewables and a circular economy. And Climate Breakdown has already started this year with thousands of record temperatures being broken, and already the hottest year on record. The World Meteorological Organisation warns 2023 shatters climate records, with major impacts.

The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) 2023 Production Gap report shows we already have too much fossil fuels in production to cook the planet. Why are Labor approving more fossil fuel projects? The International Energy Agency confirms this in the IEA report on , published in November and reviewed by John Englart at Climate Citizen.

Just read the latest science on the Cryosphere in Peril, already unleashing a slow moving disaster with collapse of the Greenland and West Antarctic Ice sheets.

Or the latest research by 200 climate scientists on global tipping points from 6 December – 5 climate tipping systems currently at risk, 3 more at risk with global warming breaching 1.5°C (Pik-potsdam) Humanity faces ‘devastating domino effects’ including mass displacement and financial ruin as planet warms (Guardian)(Nature) Report: T.M. Lenton, D.I. Armstrong McKay, S. Loriani, J.F. Abrams, S.J. Lade, J.F. Donges, M. Milkoreit, T. Powell, S.R. Smith, C. Zimm, J.E. Buxton, L. Laybourn, A. Ghadiali, J. Dyke (eds) (2023): The Global Tipping Points Report 2023. University of Exeter, Exeter, UK. (Report website)

The above work on tipping points builds on work by Professor Will Steffen and other published in PNAS in 2018 articulating the HotHouse Earth danger. See Trajectories of the Earth System in the Anthropocene

Or the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres who said “We are living through climate collapse in real time and the impact is devastating” calling for phase out of Fossil Fuels at COP28. In September Guterres warned that Climate Breakdown has begun warns UN Secretary General as world experiences hottest June-August period on record. It was also the hottest November on record. In July he warned : “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”

Watch the Facebook Livestream: (52 minutes): https://www.facebook.com/XRVictoria/videos/367164699114480