Mark Causon, Labour councillor and environmentalist

Global warming is the cause of climate change which will negatively impact the vital resources for human life, including natural ecosystems, agriculture and food supplies, human health, water resources and availability, a factor which is a consequence of human activities on climate. While trying to put aside the alarmist sounding title, I prefer to address the situation of why we should act together to provide a better standard of living free from environmental toxins.

As a government the way ahead is to aspire and work for Malta’s social and economic development to occur in a low-carbon and climate-resilient manner. With a fast-growing economy and with massive development taking place in our country the need for a holistic outward-looking policy is needed. Energy performance in building regulations is also a contributor to this reduction and together with water catchment facilities in all development, proposals need to be implemented.

Our challenge is towards a more circular economy country, with policies addressing our needs to be supported and implemented in Malta’s economic realities, through the reduction of bureaucratic obstacles. Through circular economy we would be able to extend the life cycle of materials through better resource management and in turn a lower emission economic landscape. Initiatives to support circular economies that will lead to industrial symbiosis where the waste of one industry becomes the resource and feedstock of another. However, more initiatives are needed. A case in point is the introduction of incentives to turn waste into marketable products through innovation proposals. The mechanisms to stimulate green investment and help parties meet their emission targets in a cost-effective manner through mitigation measures aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions and including the implementation of renewable energy sources, electricity efficiency and conservation are being addressed.

The government began the implementation of these measures through schemes for the promotion of solar water heaters, photovoltaic panels, energy-saving appliances and energy-saving light bulbs. However, more incentives are needed, like incentives for local councils to team together with residents to create communal solar energy systems, communal gas pipes to reduce the need for gas cylinders, use of plastic/glass fragments as an additive to create public garden footpaths or pavements and the creation of more woodlands.

We as a nation could become leaders in combating climate change

The vision for the government’s Low Carbon Development Strategy is to transform Malta into a low-carbon and climate resilient country through symbiotic societal and economic collective actions by 2050. In this way, Malta will be in a position to mitigate against greenhouse gas emissions thereby reducing its vulnerability, and increasing its adaptive capacity to climate change. In the past three years the government  embarked upon a wholesome reform of the energy sector. This has meant improved policy-making, more focused economic and environmental regulation and a reformed operational landscape. Our energy supply derived from gas is an important milestone in Malta’s transition to a more decarbonised energy sector.

Waste management measures including the promotion of waste prevention in the home and industry and the implementation of resource recovery plants are already in place. However the consideration of small plants around the island would drastically reduce vehicular transportation of waste all over the country.

The modernisation of agricultural holdings including the introduction of modern animal and manure management techniques together with the implementation of the nitrates action programme are being addressed. However, where feasible, incentives to encourage groups of neighbouring farmers to team together rather than piecemeal individual investment should be encouraged.

Therefore rather than harping on what if and what will happen, if we act together to work for a better environment we as a nation could become leaders in combating climate change.

Jason Azzopardi, Shadow Minister for the Environment

President Obama was spot on when he declared that “climate change is no longer some far-off problem. It is happening now, and it is happening here. No other issue will define as dramatically the contours of this century than the urgent threat of climate change”.

How shall, or can, we translate these words into meaningful action?

In truth, it is not so enticing or stimulating making people aware of this existential threat. The violence that is manifest in the human heart is also seen in the symptoms of the illness that we see in the Earth.

Climate change implies much more than rampant desertification in sub-Saharan Africa or extensive, massively catastrophic floods. It encompasses drier years in Malta and harsher storms. It has tremendous economic effects. For a start, let us stop financially denying climate change.

Take our tourism industry; a crucial cog in our economic wheel, employing thousands. With the climate change patterns we are witnessing in Malta, even in the course of my own lifetime, we can no longer speak of having autumn or spring. We are having much more frequent and extended extreme weather conditions. Does anyone in his right senses believe such extreme variations of temperature and weather will not impact the employment prospects in the tourism industry some years down the line, with the obvious impact on our limited agriculture?

It’s only a radical change in the priorities of this government that can avoid Malta going beyond breaking point

In the previous legislature, Parliament unanimously legislated on climate change. Both sides agreed on the need and on the measures proposed in the said law.

For instance, this law binds government to produce and update a low carbon development strategy at least every four years. However, three years after the adoption of this law, none is in sight, rendering futile this legislative intervention. Indeed, the present government’s input on climate change strategy in a concrete way is merely, excuse the pun, a bag of hot air.

The Opposition will gladly engage in a constructive manner with the government and will contribute to our long-term, low-carbon resilient future, should we be invited. But this can be done only if the government puts all the cards on the table. The lack of long-term insight and abysmal lack of government planning for this life-altering scenario deserves our contempt.

Reading through the plethora of proceedings on the initiatives being held under the auspices of several global and European fora on this subject, Malta is conspicuous by its absence. This is sad. The pronounced rise in the sea levels which will impact Malta in a dramatic way is not good enough a reason for this administration to shift up a gear. The priorities are elsewhere.

We pride ourselves in the foresight of a Nationalist government which in 1988 led the United Nations to approve, in a watershed moment and against much opposition from the  big countries, climate change as a common concern of all mankind, and which led to the seminal UN Convention on Climate Change of 1992.

However, this government has lost all track of all sense of leadership and moral authority on this subject. Making a quick buck on the side of mega deals and being on the take in major projects are, for the corridors of power in our country, much more appealing and inviting than planning for future generations and avoiding or lessening the adverse impact of climate change.

It’s only a radical change in the priorities of this government that can avoid Malta going beyond breaking point. That is what fighting and working for the common good is all about.

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