Global warming, greenhouse effect, climate change: these environmental effects are going to decide our future. While that is alarming enough for the present generation of politicians, a lot still needs to be done to bring these concerns in the political ambit, thus giving momentum to the idea called ‘Green Movement’.
Although it is fast making an impression in almost all the countries in the world, Europe has already started acting on it. It has become a popular movement at a European level, urging the manufacturing and consumption of potentially harmless consumer goods. But the impact is yet to be realised since politicians are divided on the topic of conservation, thus giving rise to the Green politicians.
In Malta, we have not seen a breakthrough for Green Party politicians. This can in large part be attributed to senior Labour politicians embracing much of their policy positions, most notably MEP Miriam Dali who is a leading advocate for climate change and the Green agenda in Brussels. In this sense, Labour politicians are well positioned to become the new Green politicians.
Green politicians are a diverse, scientific community who aim at addressing the environmental issues that the world is facing. Although the awareness of the depleting environment was present in the middle ages of European history, it started gaining momentum in the modern era when things have turned from bad to worse.
Conceptualised in 1972, the Green movement aims at creating a holistic and ecological view of the world, also insisting that people stop using substances that damage the environment.
Being the representatives of the masses, Green politicians have taken upon themselves the responsibility to change the perception of the people toward ecological health, which heavily depended on how we conducted ourselves.
This community is distinctively different from the environmental protection societies that date back to the early 19th century. The reason being that while those societies harped on the way the ecology can be renewed from its current stage of destruction, the former is responsible for curbing the rights behind environmental degradation.
While the Green movement was localised initially, it started to change views in global waters, especially in the West and Europe as early as the 1900s. Europe especially woke up to the cause after Great London Smog that killed thousands and forced the country to frame its first Clean Air Act in 1956.
In the following year, the first major nuclear accident occurred in northern England. In the year 1967, the first significant oil leak happened in Cornwall when the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran aground. It shook the world as the oil destroyed the sea life along the coast. Following the incident, the UN established the UN Environment programme in Stockholm.
This was a significant step in formalising the EU’s environmental policies that were framed by the European Council declaration. The first five-year environment programme was adopted to promote the fact that prevention is always better than cure. The partial meltdown of the Three Mile Island in the US further indemnified the need for the declaration.
Meanwhile, the Green parties that were shaped a decade ago made some progress in getting heard by the people. As a result of this, they started gaining political success. The end of the 1900s was shadowed by the effects of the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the diminishing power of communism in central and Eastern Europe.
The political ramifications demanded the strengthening of Green politics. The 1992 UN Summit in Rio de Janeiro adopted Article 21. Following this, the Kyoto Protocol was framed in 1997, which set guidelines to reduce the carbon footprint on earth and reduce the effects of Greenhouse gas emissions.
What had taken as an ideological flight to reduce environmental pollution was again overshadowed by issues like energy security, globalism and terrorism, thus triggering a clarion call by the Green parties again. And, this time, they were heard loud and clear, leading to their resounding victory in the recent EU elections.
The European elections have ushered the new era of Green politics. A ray of hope or the environmental activists and conservationists, the polls saw the Greens doubling their vote in the conservative state of Bavaria, becoming the second largest party.
On similar lines in Luxembourg’s general elections, the Greens increased their tally of MPs by 50 per cent. In Belgium, the Green movement finished second and is slated to become a significant part of the new left-wing ruling coalition.
Speaking of the motto of the European Green Party, Bas Eickhaut, vice president of the Greens/EFA Group and the leading candidate of the European Green Party said: “Tonight’s Green Wave gives us the mandate and duty to drive change in Europe. Any new Commission should take this into account because our programme of climate protection, social justice and defence of the rule of law and democracy gave the Greens this important win.”
Eickhaut’s quote summarises the journey of the Green Movement, which was marked by rejection and doubt. Their victory has brought in a change in perception toward climate change, something that was neglected, long enough to have paved the path of destruction for human beings.
It, however, remains to be seen whether the Greens will be able to delay the culmination of all the exploitation we have done on the environment, transpiring into extinction of life. But it is a battle worth fighting and I urge Labour to embrace the Green agenda in Malta.
Aaron Farrugia is Parliamentary Secretary for European Funds and Social Dialogue and member of the Foreign and European Affairs Committee.