The leader of the opposition on Monday slammed the government for slow action on climate change, saying that parliament was now discussing proposals made in the last months of the Nationalist government in 2012.
Speaking during the debate on the setting up of a Climate Change Agency, Grech said more than 10 years had been wasted.
“We spent ten years to set up an agency instead of spending ten years discussing and introducing measures to help local industry adapt to climate change challenges,” Grech said in parliament.
The new agency will monitor climate action on the island. This will be the first time Malta will have an authority focused on the action needed to fight climate change and promote sustainable living.
Grech said that the reason parliament was discussing such measures was pressure from the Nationalist Party.
In 2019, he recalled, parliament agreed on a motion declaring a climate change emergency and calling for action about it.
That motion was moved by then shadow environment minister Jason Azzopardi and called for the appointment of a National Climate Emergency Committee and a Superintendent on Climate Change.
“Everything that has happened since then is a reason for that motion,” Grech said.
“What we are discussing today are measures first announced back in 2012 under a Nationalist government, and which the PN once again proposed in 2019.”
He added that the Nationalist Party had made several proposals to tackle climate change, which the government chose to ignore.
“We recommended that the chairperson of the agency should appear before the relevant parliamentary committee, we made suggestions on how the members of the board should be appointed, and that the agency should have checks and balances,” he said.
He added that the PN also suggested that each ministry should have a climate change official.
Grech reflected on the Prime Minister’s speech on the Climate Change Action bill, where he said climate change challenges would not burden Malta but create opportunities.
He said that the government had created an economy that did not respect the environment and it did not take climate change seriously.
Grech also made reference to Malta Film Commissioner, Johann Grech’s €150,000 paycheque, and said that while the government could afford his salary, there were families who could not invest in clean and green technologies for their homes.
“Ironic, isn’t it,?” he asked.
He said it was not clear how the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) would operate, and what new responsibilities would be handed to the new agency.
He also pointed out that Malta has seen the highest increase in emissions in Europe, according to Eurostat data and that Malta is unable to follow not only international obligations, but also national ones.
He ended his speech with emphasising that Climate Change must be taken seriously and that the Opposition is ready to work hand-in-hand with the government when planning a holistic plan on climate change.