Malta has recently scored high in terms of its progress towards the achievement of targets under the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A report published by Bertelsmann Stiftung and the Sustainable Development Solutions Network has placed Malta in 22nd place out of the 157 countries assessed.

A quick look at the SDG Rank Index gives Sweden, Finland, Denmark and Norway as top four respectively, whereas bottom of the list – and therefore the world’s worst performers as far as sustainable development is concerned – the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad and the Central African Republic.

A number of countries including Libya, Brunei and North Korea, could not be assessed owing to a lack of information.

Malta ranks 22 but there are 14 EU member states that precede us on the list.

There is no simplistic way to assess  sustainable development and the widespread perception that it is all about just the environment is completely wrong.  The most often quoted Brundtland definition – development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs – is itself as complex as it may sound straightforward.

It beckons an obvious question that top-notch academics and world institutions try to answer: what, tangibly, is sustainable development and how can it be achieved?

The conventional way of describing sustainable development is through its so-called three pillars: economic growth, social well-being and environmental protection. Sustainable development is achieved, theoretically at least, when the right balance between these three is achieved.

The plethora of international conferences, mostly at United Nations level, followed up by a steady stream of academic papers and policy documents, and even legislative instruments in various countries including Malta, since the 1987 Brundtland Commission coined the term has been immense.

As far as Maltese legislation is concerned, the Sustainable Development Act has been enshrined in 2012 with the purpose (Article 2) “to create a framework through which sustainable development is to be mainstreamed across government”.

This was accompanied by a national strategy and, more recently, yet another substantial effort to integrate education for sustainable development through a national policy framework.

The Act also provides for the setting up of a Guardian of Future Generations to act as an autonomous overseer “with the aim of safeguarding inter-generational and intra-generational sustainable development in Malta”.

Assessing the extent to which countries have achieved sustainable development, or perhaps more correctly, are on course towards sustainable development trajectories, remains very difficult. There is too vast an array of socio-economic and environmental variables that come into play.

The latest hallmark in what is ultimately a high-level political process has been the UN’s Agenda 2030 with its 17 SDGs namely, no poverty, zero hunger, good health and well-being, quality education, gender equality, clean water and sanitation, affordable and clean energy, decent work and economic growth, industry, innovation and infrastructure, reduced inequalities, sustainable cities and communities, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water, life on land, peace, justice and strong institutions, and partnerships for the goals.

The voices of concern raised by individuals and stakeholders, particularly on land use and excessive construction, must be heard and judiciously addressed

The United Nations has set specific benchmarks, in the form of over 200 indicators, statistical analysis of which should enable the policymaker to assess to what extent the SDGs are being met. This, in turn, broadly reflects how a country is moving along a socio-economic trajectory that truly respects the need to achieve the right balance between the ‘three pillars’ and hence guarantee prosperity and improved quality of life.

Gauging by the Bertelsmann Stiftung report it is clear that Malta is on the right track on most of the SDGs but there is always much food for thought. We score very high, and positively so, on the eradication of poverty but then the score for ‘zero hunger’ plummets to a 62.3.

I find it almost awkward how on gender equality Malta’s score is so low when so much has been done, lately, on LGBTIQ.  There is a stark contrast between SDG8, which practically reflects the state of our economy, and the fact that we score so lowly on industry, innovation and infrastructure (SDG9).

This could partly reflect the need for, say, major investments in our road network to improve accessibility and transport and hence reduce the economic burden that is daily being incurred as a consequence of traffic congestion.

A close look at Malta’s performance on SDG14 and SDG15 suggests that more can be done in terms of safeguarding biodiversity; sadly, it is one aspect of environment that never features as prominently as air quality in political party manifestos. We are all so concerned about the air we breathe.

Malta fares on the low side on responsible consumption and production (SDG12).  The UN has established 11 goals and 13 specific indicators upon which the performance of a country with respect to SDG12 may be assessed. Waste management and recycling constitute the core of these, including a 2030 target to halve per capita global food waste, a 2020 target on hazardous waste, and “by 2030, substantially reduce waste generation through prevention, reduction, recycling and reuse”.

A key indicator to all this is the national recycling rate, an important issue that had already been raised by the European Commission in its Country Report Malta 2017 assessing of progress on structural reforms of the member states.

In this report, the commission had stated that both water and waste management are “urgent concerns” and that Malta’s waste recovery rate remains one of the lowest in the EU, quoting a municipal landfilling rate as high as 88 per cent compared to an EU average of 28 per cent.

Moreover, recycling and composting of municipal waste is given as substantially lower (12 per cent) than the EU average (44 per cent). While reiterating about the importance of water for the local economy, particularly tourism, the commission shared a positive outlook on government’s efforts towards sustainable water management both on addressing over-abstraction and dealing with nitrate pollution.

A vision document published lately on Malta’s Low Carbon Development Strategy (LCDS) – another important policy instrument expected in the coming months in line with the legal requirements under the Climate Action Act – refers to government’s investment in water polishing plants that should improve sewage treatment processes and contribute significantly to alleviate Malta’s serious water deficit.

Within the local context, the eventual successful implementation of the LCDS should prove nothing less than a litmus test as far as Malta’s efforts towards sustainability are concerned, not least to improve our rating on SDG13.

Sustainable development is a worldwide challenge. It unavoidably becomes far more complicated within the context of small island states like ours.  Governments, here, irrespective of political lineage, always have to manage typically vulnerable economies and the policy prescriptions that should serve to strike the right balances between socio-economic and environmental well-being are never straightforward.

Satisfactory as Malta’s SDG ranking may look, it does not warrant public or private enterprise to take sustainable development issues for granted; the voices of concern raised by private individuals and stakeholders, particularly on land use and excessive construction, must be heard and judiciously addressed.

That all stakeholders in society should promote more sensible lifestyles commensurate to the country’s inherent capabilities, and also limitations, is essential. However, any realistic aspiration towards a sustainable development trajectory also requires good governance structures steered by effective political leadership.

More so, in times of economic prosperity.

The author, writing in his personal capacity, is a member of the Guardian of Future Generations.

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