Environment authority officials have been meeting developers behind some of the country’s largest projects because relying solely on impact assessments would be “worthless”, the head of the watchdog has said.

The 2021 annual report of the Environment and Resources Authority (ERA)  includes a foreword by its chairman, Victor Axiak who said that officials from the regulator had held meetings with developers in a bid to minimise the environmental impact of major projects. 

Axiak raised the matter because of what he described as the public’s misunderstanding of the environmental permitting process. 

Victor Axiak. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

Many, he said, seem to believe that the environmental impact assessment, which projects must go through at the planning stage will weed out all the possible impacts a development can have on the environment.

“There is the myth that an EIA would solve all environmental issues arising from big developments. Not necessarily so. When a proposed project is inherently unsustainable and, by its very nature, is bound to lead to significant environmental degradation, an EIA would be worthless,” Axiak writes. 

He said that ERA officials had engaged in detailed discussions with developers at the earliest stages of the planning process “to ensure that what is being proposed is not only economically but also environmentally and socially sustainable”.

1,778 investigations launched last year

In 2021, ERA undertook 36 detailed EIA screenings and 11 other assessment screenings. Of these, 29 cases did not qualify for further EIA studies.

ERA also requested an EIA be carried out for six projects and requested an update to an EIA carried out some years ago.

Meanwhile, the annual report, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, says that ERA launched 1,778 investigations in 2021.

These resulted in 460 notifications of intent to fine that were issued last year.  In 2021 the authority generated more than €470,000 in revenues from fines.

The watchdog also carried out more than 8,400 inspections in 2021.

These were on a wide variety of issues including quarries, waste management sites and waste dumping, issues relating to trees and environmentally protected areas and complaints on coastal zones.

Half of them related to monitoring ERA permits. 

Assessment of 9,000 planning applications

The authority issued 11 stop and compliance orders, nine in Malta and two in Gozo, for different environmental breaches.

The authority was also tied up with permitting and assessment of various plans, projects and applications.

These included about 9,000 development applications and more than 17,000 environmental permitting applications.

During 2021, the environment authority vetted 8,674 planning consultations, of which 3,349 required in-depth analysis due to their environmental significance such as developments in the countryside, infrastructural projects, industrial or potentially polluting construction and those projects with waste or air quality implications.

ERA was also consulted by Transport Malta on permits for proposed road works, trenching operations and related works, ranging from minor localised interventions to major infrastructural interventions.

Some 2,332 Transport Malta applications were received by ERA, compared to 1,272 in 2019.