A national strategy for Malta’s environment over the next three decades is full of vague wording and shies away from identifying unsustainable projects and plans, ADPD has argued. 

Representatives of the green party said that the National Strategy for the Environment 2050 will only work if accompanied by a long-term vision and concrete action. 

Every industry should have specific waste reduction and energy efficiency plans and targets and incentives must be tied to zero-waste targets and the efficient use of raw materials, the party believes. 

But the ERA strategy document in its current form “once again avoids to pinpoint examples of unsustainable developments,” said ADPD secretary general Ralph Cassar. 

Cassar cited plans to build an airfield in Gozo, tunnel between Malta and Gozo and race track in southern Malta as projects which make no sense from an environmental perspective. 

Furthermore, Cassar said, ERA was doing the public a disservice in only releasing an English-language version of the strategy. A Maltese version is necessary, he said. 

ADPD representatives speaking on Saturday.

The ERA policy document is currently open to public consultation, which ends on November 4. 

ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo recalled the multiple studies, strategies and papers that have been release dover the years and which have duly been ignored. 

The same would most likely happen to the ERA document, he said, which despite some valid principles was littered with “vague wording” that would allow policymakers to ignore it. 

“There is no longer time available for never-ending discussions,” Cacopardo said. “It is well known that there is no political will for serious action with respect to environmental matters – from climate change, to pollution, traffic, land use and energy.” 

Solutions to environmental issues are well-known, the ADPD chairperson said, but all governments have failed to implement them. 

Such solutions require long-term thinking, rather than the political vision that only extends from one general election to the next, Cacopardo said. 

“Decisions concerning the environment – if implemented properly – require their due time to leave the desired results. This is the only way that we would see the desired results,” the ADPD chairperson concluded.