The political economy of the environment

The audience at a public lecture last month by Klaus Töpfer, the outgoing Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), was treated to a master class in environmental policy. Those expecting a green manifesto from one of the world's leading environmentalists heard instead a hard-nosed analysis of the economic value of environmental resources, the economic cost of environmental degradation, the importance of integrating environmental criteria in economic decision-making - and, conversely, of keeping economic considerations at the centre of environmental policy.

This is not surprising, given that the speaker started his professional life as an academic economist in Germany before switching to environmental governance at land, federal and international levels. (See interview in The Times, April 1.)

Dr Töpfer came to Malta to be honoured by our university with a doctorate in science honoris causa. He did not come to advice. But there was much food for thought for us in what he said while here. Take these examples:

Major projects, notably those involving land use (such as golf courses), must be subjected to a transparent planning process, open to stakeholders and the public and including a thorough assessment of social, economic and environmental impacts.

"Public consultation" does not mean informing the public of a decision already taken but drawing honestly upon public inputs before exercising wisely the political responsibility to decide. NGOs and other lobby groups, for their part, must accept that their role is to stimulate and inform serious discussion on specific topics and that the final political decisions may not be the ones they advocate.

Mature democracy allows politicians and parties to change their minds when confronted with convincing evidence. The Green Party in Germany came to accept waste incineration when in office, after having opposed this technique when in opposition.

The first Green Environment Minister publicly accepted scientific evidence that the air coming out of modern incinerator chimneys is cleaner than that going in. (This case merits examination in Malta, despite the visibly discouraging example of the ancient incinerator at St Luke's Hospital.)

Business is often a contributor to environmental problems. But, socially, responsible business can be part of the solution, as in the case of major corporations - such as British Petroleum or General Electric - that have integrated energy efficiency, alternative energies and limitation of greenhouse gas emissions in their business plans. Governments must employ education and incentives to nurture such responsibility.

None of Malta's environmental problems is unique. Dr Töpfer's experienced eye permitted him to see from his incoming flight what they might be: problems of land use, water supply, waste management, traffic, pollution from fish farms and so on.

Through the European Union, the United Nations and other institutional networks, Malta can draw upon solutions that have worked for others. Through the same networks, Malta can export its home-grown solutions to others of the 40 or so small island states around the globe.

At his working base in Nairobi, Kenya, Dr Töpfer has absorbed dramatic evidence of the human and environmental degradation caused by abject poverty and the powerful lesson that it is only through alleviating such poverty that environmental policy can take off. He showed his audience two unusual world maps which bring that poverty close to home. One displays the size of countries according to Gross Domestic Product per head; it shows an emaciated African continent hanging, skin and bone, below a bloated Europe. The other relates country size to the number of inhabitants below the age of 15; this one shows a youthful and vibrant Africa pushing against an ageing Europe.

These economic and social imbalances not only threaten global environmental sustainability; they also explain the inevitability of population movements from Africa to Europe. These movements and the problems they cause cannot be wished away but need to be managed until African development takes off.

This was a fascinating evening's offering in the Green Window series organised by the Ministry for Rural Affairs and the Environment. The listeners included the responsible minister and senior officials from that area of government. Neither other governmental domains nor any business or "development" interests manifested themselves at question time.

It was as if the environment was marginalised in a policy bubble labelled "for specialists only", remote from the focus of those seeking to promote the economic and social welfare of our country, not to mention those engaged in exploiting it. We must hope that Dr Töpfer will spend some more time with us in future to rub in his message.

Mr Zammit Cutajar is Malta's Ambassador for International Environmental Affairs.

He was formerly head of the United Nations' climate change secretariat.