Malta needs an alternative, green Vision 2050 – ADPD
Government's plan criticised for omitting a 'fifth strategic pillar' - the ecological one.
Malta needs an alternative Vision 2050 which values and protects the country’s natural heritage and is liked to a long-term “sensible sustainable development policy”, the ADPD said on Saturday.
Calling the Vision 2050 unveiled on Tuesday “a glorified development plan”, ADPD deputy chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said Malta needs a “green” vision because “an economy which functions without any respect for ecology causes considerable damage”.
Cacopardo criticised the government’s plan saying it fails to give climate change central importance, adding that it is missing a fifth strategic pillar – the ecological one.
“Economic activity should be carried out in full respect of ecology. Otherwise it ends up creating one natural disaster after the other as we are currently facing,” he said.
“The water table is practically depleted, biodiversity severely threatened, agricultural land is being continuously developed, and the climate is undergoing rapid change. Yet Vision 2050, as proposed by the Government, practically ignores the consideration of these matters of fundamental importance.”
ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said Vision 2050 ignores future generations as they “do not vote today” and is “burdening them with an accumulated national deficit of €11 billion … in addition to inheriting a dilapidated natural capital.”