Articles & News
Partit Demokratiku has boldly proposed a mandatory civic conscription service for Maltese citizens and residents in a move it said will promote the national interest ahead of the partisan interests of political parties.
MEP candidate Martin Cauchi Inglott, a retired colonel, said a national volunteer programme should be set up whereby people are taught skills, traditional arts and crafts and made to participate in programmes to plant and water indigenous trees, rebuild rubble walls and clean up the countryside, look after those in need and safeguard Maltese heritage.
“It is imperative that residents and citizens alike realise that along with rights come certain responsibilities,” he said.
The PD’s deputy leader Timothy Alden said this programme should be voluntary but incentivised through light tax incentives.
“A national volunteer programme could foster a greater sense of community and make it easier for pensioners and youths alike to put their energy towards a good cause,” he said.
Several countries have systems of mandatory or voluntary conscription, and it has become more popular in Europe in recent year, with France reintroducing it and Italy’s deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini proposing its reintroduction too.
Sustainable development should form part of the prime minister’s portfolio, as various ministries are too focused on their own remit to respond to sustainability issues, the Church’s environment commission said.
It stressed that having the issue within the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change reinforced that this was only to do with ‘environment stuff’ whereas issues such as the excessive number of private cars populating our roads and the negative impacts on sustainability of the construction industry are “the root cause of problems”.
The Church’s Interdiocesan Environment Commission (KA) on Friday issued its submission in the consultation exercise related to Malta’s Sustainable Development Vision for 2050 which was carried out last November.
KA suggested the setting up of a parliamentary committee made up of both sides of the House to decide on a national sustainable development strategy with its accompanying policy actions, stressing that it might require positive discrimination of policies to safeguard the environment and promote social wellbeing over short-term economic gains.
It said that the consultation paper had also not sufficiently explored concepts of ‘carrying capacity’ and ‘limits to growth’.
“One needs to examine whether what goes into increasing our Gross Domestic Product is in fact contributing to the sustained wellbeing of current and particularly future generations,” it stressed.
The State of the Environment Report (SoER), which provides “an overview of the quality of the environment we are living in”, shows that while important steps forward have been made, more action is needed for a better environment.
The SoER, launched today by the Ministry of Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change. goes over a variety of areas which are directly, or indirectly, connected to the environment – with 10 chapters going over areas of the environment such as biodiversity, marine and fresh waters, resources and waste, land and coast, ambient air, environmental health, climate change, and the possible policy responses to all the related issues that may come from any of the aforementioned areas.
Minister’s Address
Addressing the launch of the SoER, Minister Jose Herrera said that the reports “acts as a snapshot, reporting the status of the environment and covers 7 years of data from 2009-2015”. He went on to explain that the report will be used as a basis upon which future policies and strategies concerning the environment should be developed.
Whilst acknowledging the existence of environmental implications from the economic gains Malta has made, he did note that we have much to contend with. Particularly the fact that our population density is significantly higher than the EU average, which stand at 1,450.2/km2 and 118/km2 respectively.
He went on to explain that the Environmental and Resource Authority (ERA) has been focusing on implementing a number of Natura 2000 management plans, including work being done on plans for marine environment sites.
Bring up the budget, he reiterated that the ERA is already working on Malta’s first Nation Environment Strategy which will serve as a framework to “outline the nation’s priorities in this sector and will be steering us all towards overcoming our environmental challenges”.
Report Summary
Arguably the most topical issues with regards to the environment that are handled in the report are waste generation, which a recent overhaul in the garbage disposal system has still to bear fruit as people get used to the new implemented methods; land and coast, an issue which has been coming up for years especially with regards to development on ODZ and the increased “popularity” of high-rises; and air quality which is very closely linked to the high private car use on the island.
Beginning with waste, the report notes that waste generation per capita in Malta remains high when compared to EU countries, also saying that resource productivity has also dropped when compared to previous years, “indicting that we have become more ‘wasteful’ of resources”.
“More efforts on waste management are required over the next few years. These include solutions for residual waste management, whilst a landfill supporting other waste infrastructure is being pursued.”
Moving onto our land and coast, and using present data for 2005-2011, there are indications that there is a proportional increase in both the actual dwelling stock and the vacant dwellings – although the need for a more detailed assessment is acknowledged.
The report notes that “the largest proportion of non-dwelling total approved floor space in Malta pertains to environmental leisure (30%), followed by office (13%), warehousing (13%), and leisure development (10%)”.
With regards to contributors to the total floor-space approved in predominantly urban coast are cultural (18.1%), warehouse (17.7%), and leisure projects (13.5%). The most affected areas is the Grand Harbour Local Plan which absorbs 40% of the total approved floor space.
Air quality did see some improved a slight positive shift in Malta’s car fleet towards fuel-efficient vehicles was observed during the review period for the report. Although private car use and low consumption of alternative fuels is still low, and this makes it one of the key forces for environmental concern.
Climate change in Malta is seen through a warming trend of +0.38oC per decade for the annual mean minimum temperature, with the Mediterranean Sea surface increasing at +0.35oC.
It stressed that having the issue within the Ministry for the Environment, Sustainable Development and Climate Change reinforced that this was only to do with ‘environment stuff’ whereas issues such as the excessive number of private cars populating our roads and the negative impacts on sustainability of the construction industry are “the root cause of problems”.
The Church’s Interdiocesan Environment Commission (KA) on Friday issued its submission in the consultation exercise related to Malta’s Sustainable Development Vision for 2050 which was carried out last November.
KA suggested the setting up of a parliamentary committee made up of both sides of the House to decide on a national sustainable development strategy with its accompanying policy actions, stressing that it might require positive discrimination of policies to safeguard the environment and promote social wellbeing over short-term economic gains.
It said that the consultation paper had also not sufficiently explored concepts of ‘carrying capacity’ and ‘limits to growth’.
“One needs to examine whether what goes into increasing our Gross Domestic Product is in fact contributing to the sustained wellbeing of current and particularly future generations,” it stressed.
Resources
If you would like to see the PowerPoint Presentation of this research report, kindly follow this link: SOS Resilient Communities September 2017
Local Stories
We would like to introduce ‘Soap Cafe’, a business that has been operating for the past 9 years and has the concept of sustainability at its very core. They are producers of handmade cosmetics, using only natural ingredients which are, as much as possible, locally sourced. Here is a short video highlighting the concept behind this initiative:
Action Planet is a nationwide project that unites people from all walks of life to look at how their daily lifestyle choices are impacting Malta and the world. We take a solution focused approach, encouraging people to make simple yet profound changes that will greatly improve our environment, health and well-being.