Ministries should have a designated representative focusing solely on climate change, evaluating compliance with international obligations, Opposition spokesperson for climate change Eve Borg Bonello said on Wednesday.
She said these people should not only be answerable to the minister but also to the Climate Action Authority, whose setting up is currently being discussed by parliament.
Borg Bonello explained that officials focused on climate change should evaluate compliance with international obligations linked to climate change and provide advice. All this was crucial for the strategies for climate change in Malta to be holistic.
Borg Bonello said the Nationalist Party had always been a pioneer in climate change issues. It was the Nationalist Opposition that in 2019 submitted to the Maltese Parliament the request for a declaration of a climate change emergency.
The setting up of the Climate Change Authority was a step in the right direction, she said, but much more needed to be done. "I cannot understand why we had to wait five years before taking action,” she said.
During these last months, even in its parliamentary work, the Nationalist Party put forward ideas and proposals for the same authority, which the government had ignored. The Nationalist Party extended the hand of collaboration several times but the government decided to do it alone, without any form of consultation, not even with experts in the field.
The authority, she said, was essential to move forward and take urgent action to limit emissions, improve air quality and mitigate the effects of climate change in the country, especially since Malta fell six places in the Climate Change Performance Index last year. Only last week, Malta was found to have the highest dependence on polluting energy sources in the European Union.
Unfortunately, however, the bill for the setting up of the authority was drafted in haste “to save face”.
The Nationalist MP said the government and opposition should work together because this generation and those of the future would look back and say that action was not taken when it was needed most.
“If we do not act now, we will be condemning future generations to hell on earth,” she warned.