Updated 6.15pm

A Climate Action Authority (CAA) formally inaugurated by the prime minister on Monday has been tasked with coordinating and overseeing measures related to climate change. 

Its main function will be to provide strategic advice to the government and ensure that Malta meets local and international climate change targets, including being carbon neutral by 2050.

The authority will also monitor climate change effects on the Maltese islands and establish strategies and measures to combat climate change effectively and sustainably.  

Environment Ministry officials said the authority will develop a national strategy on climate change, coordinate, create and manage climate action projects between ministries and other government entities and usher in incentives that support climate action. 

CAA CEO Abigail Cutajar said the authority will have the power to impose administrative penalties on private and government entities based on existing international regulations.  

Engineer Abigail Cutajar is Climate Action Authority's CEO. Credit: Matthew Mirabelli

She explained that the first issue the authority will tackle will be a national climate action plan. It will work to ensure that Malta is carbon neutral by 2050 by adopting the laws of the European Green Deal and the Fit-for-55 package on a national level. 

Environment Minister Miriam Dalli said the authority was an important step forward for the country, adding she was proud that the smallest EU country was the first to have such an authority.   

Speaking during the launch, Prime Minister Robert Abela said now was the time to provide incentives to help improve the people's quality of life, but also to take difficult decisions to fight climate change.

Who is part of the new authority? 

The authority is led by a board of six members, including a chairperson. Two of the members are experts in climate-related issues, while the other four have solid backgrounds in climate-related matters. 

The chairperson, Mario Azzopardi, will oversee the general operations of the authority. 

The authority includes four directors - engineer Paul Fenech, Prof. Ruben Paul Borg, Sean Schembri and Marija Sara Vella Gafa. Vella Gafa who previously served as Gudja mayor was an MEP candidate. 

Over and above the authority, an independent National Climate Action Council has also been set up to advise the government on climate change-related issues. Malta’s Ambassador for Climate Action, Simone Borg was appointed as the council’s chairperson, while Prof. Alan Deidun, a marine biologist will serve as the deputy chairperson.

The council’s members are Prof. Charles Galdies, David Xuereb, Dina Quraishi, Joseph Restall, Prof. Godfrey Baldacchino, Prof. Stefano Moncada, and Maria Magri.

PN reacts

The PN welcomed the launch of the authority, saying it had been calling for such an entity since 2019, when it tabled a motion in Parlament and both sides had voted to declare a climate emergency.

"We note with satisfaction various ideas and amendments that were accepted by the government, and others that were implemented through compromise, to strengthen the work of the authority and the council.

"This, of course, is due to us recognising the urgency of the situation and that not enough is being done to combat climate change at present," Eve Borg Bonello, shadow minister for climate change said.

Borg Bonello said the party would be monitoring the authority’s work to ensure this effort was not just an exercise in greenwashing but one that genuinely led to bold and innovative decisions for a clean future and progress towards climate neutrality for coming generations.