Environment before profit

Klaus Toepfer, executive director of the UN Environment Programme,believes recycling should be a way of life. It's about time countries put the environment before profit, he tells Herman Grech.

Klaus Toepfer laughs heartily when told about the ever-growing protests over recycling plants and landfills in Malta.

"Do you think NIMBY (the Not In My Back Yard syndrome) is only exclusive to small countries like Malta? Nobody wants to have the burden other people are producing. It's the same with climate change," the 68-year old environment pioneer says.

Prof. Toepfer knows what he is talking about. He is after all widely recognised as having spearheaded environmental policy as environment minister in his home country Germany. He introduced ground breaking environmental regulations and laws such as the law on the life-cycle economy and the packaging recycling system Green Dot.

He is known internationally for his personal commitment to promote the environment and sustainable development, and to fight for the cause of the developing world.

A walking environment encyclopaedia, Prof. Toepfer became executive director of Unep and director general of the UN office at Nairobi in 1998 and is now serving his last days before retiring.

Upon the invitation of Environment Minister George Pullicino, he was recently in Malta, just days before he retires from his post.

As the world grapples with a mountain of rubbish, Prof. Toepfer says global development has to develop a much more circular way of thinking.

"Don't leave it too late or poor people that handle waste would have to opt for landfill or incineration," he says, adding that the authorities should make the cost of handling waste a part of the market price.

"Consumers should have the ability to take back any kind of package to the retail shops. I'm not talking of eco taxation. We have to make the producer responsible."

As Malta is forced to export some of its waste, shop owners in Malta are opposed to a deposit scheme for beverage waste because they are not prepared to act as "waste collectors", according to the Chamber for Small and Medium Enterprises.

But Prof. Toepfer believes that every country should tailor a solution according to its own needs based on the "three Rs" that environmentalists have been campaigning on for a number of years: reduce, reuse, and recycle - but he also suggests adding the "repair" of resources where necessary.

"Malta does not have an isolated situation. I can't see why exporters shouldn't come up with incentives to help your country.

"With a market of 400,000 people, there's an interest for them to serve this country. But it's important to bring the producer, retailer and the consumer in the game."

Of course there is a lot of political risk involved in environmental policy, but governments should take the plunge, he insists. In Germany, an initiative to make the separation of paper obligatory was met with opposition - but the population eventually got used to the system. This is why education, especially targeted at youngsters, is essential.

He says it is welcoming to note large enterprises making efforts to reduce and facilitate the process of waste.

For example, the existing mobile phone needs around five different tools to be dismantled. In the near future just one tool would be enough.

"If you make them responsible for what they produce you will see the change. It's market economy at its best," Prof. Toepfer smiles.

The most essential policy to care for the environment is to avoid waste in the first place, make it less difficult to handle, and especially reduce toxic components which are difficult to eliminate later.

As a firm believer in social market economy, his vision is to make the environment work to improve the lives of present and future generations. The environment should not be seen as an impediment to economic development.

Prof. Toepfer, though, has serious concerns about climate change - a slow-motion concern which is fast turning into an emergency.

He places the blame squarely on developed countries as he underlines the need to explain to all and sundry the subsequent dangers.

The number of motor vehicles is enough to explain the extent of the problem - worldwide there are an estimated 120 cars for every 1,000 people but in the US there are more than 800 cars and in Germany over 700 for the same number of people. On the other hand, China, the most populated country in the world, has 50 cars for every 1,000 people.

Developing countries like China and India are learning the importance of "environment capital", Prof. Toepfer believes.

"If they go the same way we went with private mobility and fossil fuel, it's going to be impossible. If you go from 50 cars to 120 cars (per 1,000 of the population) we need months more of oil production - and it's not available. It's not economically possible and environmentally destructive."

The world also has to find ways of handling water better. For example, Malta is an island where the water demand is higher than nature provides and therefore has to produce it.

"The world also has to find ways of reducing demand. Let's remember that we have to invest up to 65 per cent for agriculture," he says.

The consumption and production patterns of technologies in the development countries have to be changed.

"Just listen to (US President) George Bush saying how we are addicted to oil. He said we have to invest massively in renewable energy, in zero emission power stations, but he never mentions climate change. Instead he mentions energy security, competitiveness. All our concerns about climate change was not as efficient as Russian President Vladimir Putin's decision to cut the gas supply to Ukraine which affected Europe. All of a sudden there was discussion.

"Lots of countries say 'let's get rich first and clean up later'. We have to consider the safety of the environment now."