Members of the regular Vigil to End Fossil Fuels delivered a letter to Peter Khalil MP urging him to fight hard for a 100% emissions reduction target. A copy of the letter is below.

9 September 2025
Peter Khalil, Federal Member of Parliament for Wills
466-468 Sydney Rd, Coburg, Vic 3058

Dear Peter
We, the undersigned participants in the Wills-Merri-Bek Vigil to End Fossil Fuels are calling for a greenhouse gas emissions reduction target of 100% by 2035.

The Australian government is due to announce its emissions reduction target for 2035 this month as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) under the Paris Agreement on Climate Change, to which Australia is a signatory.

As our representative in Parliament, we ask that you call for a target of 100% reduction by 2035 and lobby for this in the ALP caucus. These views are informed by the science of climate change. The Climate Council has set out a case for net zero by 2035, stating that “net zero by 2035 is the only target available to Australia with a strong chance of contributing to holding global warming below 2°C”.

Climate science research on the amount of greenhouse gas emissions we can emit to stay within 1.5C (the ‘carbon budget’) suggest an even stronger target. At the present rate of emissions we have only a 50% chance of staying within 1.5C by 2028. More detailed information and references are available on the Climate Action Merri-bek website here and here.

Exceeding 1.5C exposes Australia to great risks including more frequent and severe heatwaves, bushfires and floods. It will lead to the likely loss of coral in the Great Barrier Reef and many more species extinctions.

This year, following decades of climate breaking records we are starting to see very frightening impacts on the oceans, for example ocean heatwaves leading to coral loss and other species loss in Queensland and Western Australia, a massive algal bloom in South Australian and continued coastal erosion in Victoria.

For the sake of your constituents, particularly younger generations, we call on you to fight hard for an emissions reduction target of 100%.

[Signed by five participants from the Vigil to End Fossil Fuels and delivered to Peter Khalil’s office]

The Vigil to End Fossil Fuels has now been meeting on Tuesdays 11-1 pm outside Mr Khalil’s office for over three months. So far we have had no acknowledgement from Mr Khalil for any of our communications, including this letter. But we will keep advocating on behalf of our community and future generations, and urge other members of our community to do the same.

The emissions reduction target is due to be announced before the end of September, so please get your letters and phone calls in to Mr Khalil’s office as soon as you can. You are free to use any wording from the letter above, or an earlier letter here, or use your own words, which are often the strongest call.

Blogpost written by Valerie Kay.