Sustaining the sustainable

Post-independence Malta witnessed unprecedented levels of development. Successive governments implemented - some successfully, others not - economic policies aimed at increasing wealth, creating new job opportunities and improving the standard of living.

While Malta worked overtime to establish the foundations of its new economy, countries elsewhere delved into the absolute need to promote an exclusive kind of economic development that does not compromise the ability of future generations to achieve and enjoy the same level of welfare, or standard of living, of the present generation.

By 1987, the term sustainable development was common currency in Europe. Spearheaded by the green Scandinavian countries and the genius of Gro Harlern Gruntland, the United Nations and, soon after, the European Union embraced the concept of sustainable development as an integral part of the economic plans and set-ups for the various regions.

Conscious of what has been taken place in Europe, various stakeholders in Malta have in recent years taken turns to promote and implement concrete steps favouring sustainability. However, for various reasons and circumstances, the need of coupling the generation of wealth and the creation of jobs with improvements in social and environmental standards has desperately lagged behind, not only in respect to the optimum level wished for in this context but also in stark comparison to the level achieved by our continental counterparts.

There is widespread agreement, at least among the younger generations, that the current economic and social situation in Malta cannot keep making use of the present principles of development which, to the empirical eye, leave much to be desired in terms of sustainability. Faced by this unhappy situation, stakeholders from the different issue groups have been repeatedly and persistently calling for a positive and concrete step forward.

If Malta keeps following the current way of doing things, they say, we would be close to a stage where further improvement becomes almost impossible.

There is indeed a wide range of horizontal issues which need to be tackled concurrently and urgently. Issues like public expenditure, housing, public transport, economic competitiveness, health services, life-long education, tourism product, public participation, gender equality, job quality, taxation, unemployment have been raised in a disjointed fashion in recent years.

Unfortunately, there is no central strategy in place to take the country into a forward gear. Rather than opting for sustainability, development has gone ahead in "quick economic fixes".

The proposal to turn large tracts of agricultural land into golf courses and the haphazard development of other stretches of the countryside are supposedly meant to reverse negative macro-economic trends. I believe that economic, social and environmental aspects ought to be tackled at the same time. The concept of sustainability ought to be accepted as a prime goal by all.

A National Commission for Sustainable Development was set up two years ago but we have yet to see what kind of proposals it has in mind. The implementation of standards set out under European Union environmental directives are seen as a faster way of reaching sustainability.

However, the fact remains that beyond the hastily written report for Johannesburg 2002, where local agenda 21 projects and practices of sustainable development principles were light years away from everyday reality, Malta still needs a national strategy for sustainable development.

Our agenda should include sustainable land use, production of energy from renewable sources, the protection of our natural biodiversity, heritage and culture, disciplined law enforcement and monitoring and waste management.

What's worse, calls for a strategy for sustainable development coming from reputable policy officials and from respected representatives of civil society, are suffocated. Unfortunately, government actions echo too much the din coming from those calling for quick-fix solutions.

Solutions that generate profit for a handful at the expense of depleting our natural resources (soil, water, land, air) and impoverishing the wealth of our biodiversity, heritage and culture, without contributing enough to the creation of jobs and to the improvement of the social conditions, should be simply thrown out of the window.

Malta is crying out for the implementation of concrete policies leading to sustainable development.

Mr Bonnici is a Labour candidate for the European parliament.