ADPD – The Green Party is calling for the Constitution to give citizens the right to sue the government if it fails to take action on issues of environmental concern. 

Party chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said environmental policy should be inspired by the fact that as human beings form part of an ecosystem we depend on to survive, and therefore should be much more than an instrument to fix previous damage.

"Unfortunately, however, environmental destruction has continued as governments have only sought to satisfy today’s demands without giving much attention that this will many a time impact drastically on the future," he said.

ADPD, Cacopardo said, has already proposed to the Constitutional Convention that the environmental principles found in the second chapter of the Constitution should not be merely words on paper but serve as a guideline for government action.

"It should be possible where necessary that individual citizens seek Court protection in areas where the government is procrastinating, or failing to take action, or not doing enough. In the UK and The Netherlands governments have been pushed by action in the courts to take action on air quality and climate change."

Such a measure will strengthen the status of environmental NGOs and civil society which will have a right to bring action in Maltese courts, and if necessary European ones, to reach their aims. eNGOs should also receive state aid to be able to carry out better their obligations, Cacopardo added.

'Stop playing games'

Deputy general secretary and election candidate Melissa Bagley said a proposed site for an airstrip for model aircraft on the periphery of Ħal Far, the size of five football grounds, along a designated Natura 2000 site in Wied Żnuber would mean the destruction of agricultural land as well as the spoiling of ecologically important zones.

According to EU environmental rules, a Natura 2000 site should be largely centred on people working with nature rather than against it, Bagley said.

She said the land earmarked for the development had been described as ‘disturbed’ due to the agricultural activity on site. However, the destruction associated with the paving of agricultural land and landfilling of garigue for the construction of the miniature airstrip and clubhouse could not in any way be defined as working with nature and was bound to increase human activity in the area exponentially, she insisted.

"Birżebbuġa and neighbouring villages have already received their more-than-fair share of industrialization activity impacting on the quality of life of the residents, and this proposed project would be another nail in the coffin for our natural heritage.

“Stop playing games, stop the empty promises made on the eve of an election."