Malta’s pollution and climate change targets fall laughably short of the rhetoric Robert Abela put on show at the United Nations, ADPD has said.

Green Party general secretary Ralph Cassar noted that while Abela was telling the UN General Assembly that Malta’s focus was on climate change, his own Environment Minister was boasting that all citizens, including wasteful ones, were benefiting from energy subsidies.

Successive governments have done “the bare minimum” when it comes to energy targets, Cassar said, negotiating lower targets and talking the talk without following it up with tangible action.

It has done the same when it comes to pollution and climate change, Cassar said, aiming to do as little as is necessary and delaying action for as long as possible.

The ADPD representative contrasted Malta’s approach to that of Ireland, which has committed itself to slashing public sector emissions by 51% by 2030.

Malta, by contrast, is targeting an 11.5% reduction by that date. The local targets “needs to be at least quadrupled for it to be considered serious, ambitious and achievable with sustained effort,” he said.

ADPD chairperson Carmel Cacopardo said existing energy subsidies were especially wasteful because they did nothing to discourage vehicle use. By subsidising petrol and diesel costs, the government was giving the impression that private vehicle use can go on unhindered, he said.

“It would have been more beneficial if the subsidies were only applied to those with mobility issues. We must continuously encourage the use of alternative means of transport, including public transport, while relying less on private vehicles,” he said.

Traffic congestion is a symptom of a greater problem – that of having too many cars – and would not be solved by widening roads, Cacopardo added.

As for free public transport, this would only become an effective measure at curbing congestion if coupled with the necessary investment to make the public bus service truly useful, the ADPD chair concluded.