Environment Minister Aaron Farrugia appears to be well meaning for the portfolio he holds. He has championed many a small-scale, publicity-friendly project. He started off on the right foot when he drove the repeal of the Fuel Services Station Policy and replaced it with one that better protects the environment. He often says the right things in front of a camera.

But in his nearly two years at the helm of a vital ministry, he has managed to do little to make a dent where it really counts: stopping the relentless degradation of Malta’s environment.

Construction activity is suffocating people in their own homes, new development and road-building encroach more of the countryside, while hundreds of old trees have been chopped down. Contractors, land speculators and hunters are generally having a field day. Meanwhile, those who hold the environment dear can only weep.

One of Farrugia’s major handicaps is that he shares his area of responsibility with other ministers. Sustainability is in the hands of Miriam Dalli. Hunting and trapping (or scientific bird catching, as the government is now calling it), falls under a minister-trapper, Clint Camilleri.

Farrugia is prominent in the news, all smiles, cutting ribbons and launching ‘environmental investment projects’. When analysed, many are nothing short of greenwash.

“People want to see greener, more environmental and sustainable projects,” Farrugia declared as he spoke about his latest ‘initiative’ the other day: €300,000 allocated for urban greening in 11 localities.

This is equivalent to about €27,000 per locality, the price of a car. Is this the kind of investment that will bring clean air into our children’s lungs – another ‘investment for their future’? What future are we talking about?

Under Farrugia, the Environment and Resources Authority and the Malta Environment and Planning Authority have allowed landscapes and streetscapes to be further disfigured. ERA has been weak with contraveners and the PA has become a rubber stamp for large projects that have ruined Malta as we knew it. Gozo is fast following suit. Farrugia did not even have the power to stop illegal works taking place on Comino.

“We are listening,” he said when faced with proposals put forward by Gozitan mayors – with which he expressed agreement – about the need to control overdevelopment. Listening is no excuse for lack of action though.

Malta places last among EU countries when it comes to recycling. No other EU member state is as far from reaching its emissions targets as Malta.

Farrugia was part of the deal to hand over Miżieb to hunters, a lobby that has been dragging down Malta’s name with illegal hunting activities for ages. He has never once pronounced himself against this activity.

A year ago, he had promised to start publishing a register of all meetings he had with stakeholders, in a move touted as promoting transparency and good governance. That register is still to appear.

His job is not easy. He is overseeing a ministry overpowered by sectoral interests, from construction to waste. Serving as environment minister can be a poisoned chalice in an island where land is limited and sectoral interests rule above everything else.

He clearly does not have the clout or the decisiveness to hammer his point across at the cabinet of ministers, whose collective mission seems to be to continue placating the construction lobby and these same selfish interests and lobbies in return for votes.

It’s time the environment minister lives up to his billing, stands up to his cabinet colleagues and starts to make a tangible difference to the real environmental issues that beleaguer the islands. We continue living in hope of seeing an effective environment minister.