Straitjacket politics

Going by the law of averages and according to the way logic dictates, someone responsible for the environment, tourism, sustainable development, Mepa and culture should have definitely been elevated to a Cabinet minister. That this did not come about in Mario de Marco's case in no way reflects on his competence and capabilities. Neither was it triggered, in my humble opinion, by Lawrence Gonzi's "commitment" to retaining a lean Cabinet.

I personally think it was the end result of "straitjacket politics", the knee jerk reaction of a Prime Minister who does not and cannot afford to open any fronts with his disgruntled backbenchers by elevating any parliamentary secretary to ministerial status and this in order to quell any further unrest and disquiet within his own ranks. That Joe Cassar ended up as Minister for Health reflects well on his hands on approach but the move was mainly due to the fact that, with John Dalli's departure from Cabinet, it would not have made sense to have his ministerial duties added on to those of Dolores Cristina, who has now been already entrusted with both education and family affairs.

As far as Dr de Marco goes, I will limit myself to his environmental brief.

There were times in Parliament when, during question time, I used to quiz him in the absence of the Prime Minister on Mepa's performance. He used to reply, quite rightly, that he was only responsible for Mepa's reform not its day-to-day operations.

As of now, he is responsible for both.

And I find it shameful indeed that a Prime Minister who "won" the election on the basis of assuming full responsibility for the environment and Mepa did not even have the patience to see the Mepa reform start being debated in Parliament before adopting a Pontius Pilate approach by handing it over, together with all its crowns of thorns.

Lawrence Gonzi might claim to have honoured his electoral pledge of eventually seeing Mepa reform through this legislature but he will definitely go down in Malta's political history as having overseen one of the worst patches in Mepa's own history, some of the worst experiences of the rape of the environment and the total elimination of the commission for sustainable development from the new planning and environmental laws.

Dr de Marco might have a tougher agenda than he himself can imagine and that goes far beyond the realm of mere Mepa reform, whether it ends up being cosmetic or not.

The ordinary citizen expects to know whether there exists an overall and effective national strategy for Malta's environment. Does Malta have an overall direction on what it wants its environment to be like? Is there a list of workable, practical actions to actually lead to such an objective? Who should be involved to take the necessary action to move in that direction? Even more importantly, does each and every government entity know what its role is?

Such a strategy should also look at the resources required not only financial but also in terms of human capacity - thus posing the question, as to whether we are developing the necessary educational programmes to have skilled human resources to undertake the necessary action in the different government and private entities.

Many are bound to ask whether there is sufficient information on the status of Malta's environment allowing one to see what actions are needed to improve the effectiveness of the action taken and also to review them.

The State of the Environment Report (SOER) is an important tool but it still falls far short of achieving such a noble aim.

We are still faced by lack of data, lack of adequate funds to undertake studies to identify past trends and the prevailing situation and to develop future scenarios in all sectors including climate change.

Attempts are made, sometimes ad hoc or not effectively enough; arising from SOER reporting and also because of EU obligations but all this begs the question: Why are we still not meeting all obligations, such as noise maps etc.? Are we developing appropriate policies that really deal with Malta's environmental problems? How is Malta's environment being managed? Why does it seem that all appears to be in place...on paper... and, yet, in practice one experiences such negative impacts regarding air quality, water resources and marine pollution? Why does Malta agree to targets set by the EU and then fail to deliver on time? Are our policies developed at a slower pace than required? Have we agreed to targets with the EU that are now difficult to achieve because, when agreeing to such targets, Malta did not look at what is happening on the ground and it is now finding it to be too late and or too difficult to achieve or, worse, realising that it is tantamount to an act of political suicide?

Lack of proper action leads to degradation or loss of resources we depend on: degradation of natural systems that provide us with a service - increased contamination of and extraction from the water table reduces our fresh water supply; inadequate public transport use increases air pollution; increased over-development reduces the amount of open space that, in turn, affects the landscape and on and on....

It is true that the state of Malta's environment is the result of each individual's actions but, ultimately, the key driver must be the government of the day. All this goes beyond mere tree hugging because it impacts directly on our quality of life and environmental health.

Dr de Marco has a daunting task ahead. Only time will tell whether he will succeed, although I do not doubt that he will try his best. What is for sure is that Dr Gonzi has just handed him a poisoned chalice!

Mr Brincat is shadow minister for the environment, sustainable development and climate change.

brincat.leo@gmail.com, www.leobrincat.com