Start to wide consultation on sustainable development strategy

At an all-day conference, "Towards a strategy for the sustainable development", held at the Corinthia San Gorg yesterday, Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said that the challenge, of addressing the social, environmental and economic factors which are all relevant to sustainable development, was stimulating.

He said this was not just because, as prime minister, he was the chairman of the National Commission for Sustainable Development, but also because he had gained experience on the issue when he attended the World Summit in Johannesburg in 2002.

That summit had emphasised that the agenda for sustainable development does not only include the environmental sector, but also a better quality of life for the citizens of all countries.

The challenge for every country, including ours, is to create economic opportunities without damaging their natural resources, said the prime minister.

The strategy we are to design should include measures that address the social, economic and environmental sectors. One environmental sector that immediately springs to mind is waste. A sustainable policy on waste management would create new jobs and would involve the creation of new products and services that would encourage the public to generate less waste, he said.

The prime minister also mentioned the Grand Harbour, an area of great historical and architectural value that had a concentration of environmental, social and economic problems. He said that special attention should be given to this area when designing the strategy.

We are becoming increasingly conscious of the damage to our health by pollution caused by traffic and the deteriorating quality of our water and beaches, and legislation has already addressed these issues in preparation for joining the EU.

Collective effort needed

However, we still have problems to contend with, like the ever-increasing traffic on our roads, and we have to become more efficient with our services, which are negatively affecting our quality of life.

The strategy that we design has to be a collective effort addressing these factors, said the prime minister. He mentioned energy, transport and land use as sectors which need to be addressed.

The revised Structure Plan will form an important element of the structure for a sustainable development policy. He said that the policy should be designed through consultation with consumers and the people who will implement it.

This participation is reflected in the make-up of the national commission, which includes female representation, NGOs, ministers and government agencies.

It is important that commission members transmit information to their places of work to ensure the widest participation possible, said Dr Gonzi.

Above all, the strategy has to be accepted by the public and the social and economic partners. "There should be extensive public consultation and I take personal satisfaction in seeing that this process will include regional meetings and that the consultative and participatory aspects are being given importance by the commission," said Dr Gonzi.

Professor Lino Brigulio then presented a video, which helped to stimulate the debate that was to follow in four workshops, attended by economists, environmentalists, planners, educators and entrepreneurs. The video presented data on built-up areas, pollution, waste, water contamination and destruction of endemic flora and fauna.

Before the workshops started Dr Francesco La Camera, from the Italian Institute of Sustainable Development, gave a presentation. He spoke about the beginning of the movement for sustainable development in the late Sixties by the Club of Rome.

The best-known definition of sustainable development is contained in the so-called Brundtland report (1987), said Dr La Camera, quoting: "Humanity has the ability to make development sustainable - to ensure that it meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs".

The concept of sustainable development implies limitations to growth imposed by the state of technology and social organisation on environmental resources and by the ability of the biosphere to absorb the effects of human activities.

World demand for energy

He talked about the effects of globalisation, that the US consumes more oil than it produces and that the imbalance will eventually undermine the economy and way of life. The growing demand for energy is global and more pronounced in the larger countries like the US and China, where the use of fossil fuels add to the green house effect.

The world demand for energy will go up by 35 per cent by 2025, said Dr La Camera, and China and India's flourishing economies will increase their demand by 91 per cent.

Dr La Camera talked about the distribution and inequality world wide and said that 1.3 billion people are living on $1 per day.

If the present growth trends in world population, industrialisation, pollution, food production, and resource depletion continue unchanged, the limits to growth will be reached some time within the next 100 years resulting in a sudden and incontrollable decline in both population and industrial capacity.

However, it is possible to alter these growth trends and to establish a condition of ecological and economic stability that is sustainable far into the future, said Dr La Camera.

Lack of co-ordination

Environment Minister George Pullicino, closing the conference, said that there was a lack of co-ordination between government departments and agencies when it came to taking decisions on sustainable development.

Emphasising the need for collective participation in devising a strategy for sustainable development for the Maltese Islands Mr Pullicino said that ethics and a strong political will were necessary if Malta was to take good decisions that took account of environmental, social and developmental issues together.

"The political dimension is vital for sustainable development because it is all about continuous negotiations and trying to find consensus. It is very difficult to convince policy- makers to do something, but the responsibility lies in the hands of everyone. Nobody can wait passively for the government to do something," Mr Pullicino said.

He said the government has neither the financial means nor the human resources for policing people who did not respect the environment.

"There is a great need for initiative and the Maltese need not change the attitude that they do not take initiatives unless they are paid for what they do", he said.

The minister said ethics played a very important role in devising this strategy. The process should be based on values and not on 'stand-to-gain' criteria.

"We are backward when it comes to long-term planning, for instance. We need to know what we have and we need to know how to use our limited resources in the best possible manner," he said.

Mr Pullicino urged industry to endorse environment-friendly principles. He said businesses and industries that had done so raised their sales, because consumers have become sensitive to issues such as environment procedures and the working conditions of employees making the product they were buying.

"There are consumers out there who look out for these things and do not select their products on just financial criteria. This is the culture that this policy needs to encourage."

Church praised

Mr Pullicino said this conference was the start of a consultation process, which should not take longer than a year, after which a document will be published as a guide for devising policies.

Mr Pullicino praised the Church as one of the most influential institutions in Malta, for having set up its own Environment Commission after an understanding of the need of sustainable development in Malta.

Organised by the National Commission for Sustainable Development, the conference called for an integrated approach when it comes to discuss issues of a social, economic and environmental nature, and even for responsibility towards future generations.

Rapporteurs of different workshops at the conference emphasised the need of a legal framework through which non-governmental organisations could operate.