When told that glaciers are melting, I do not expect many Maltese to become wildly excited or to lose much sleep. They have just been told that glaciers all over the planet melted six times faster in the 1990s than they did in the previous decade and have continued to accelerate: even faster this decade. Climate change is not only real and happening, it is happening faster than expected.
In Paris last week, the world's most eminent scientists prepared a report which the world's governments will not be able to ignore. It is the culmination of two decades' work by global science as represented by the 600 scientists preparing the report and the 600 scientists who scrutinised it under the aegis of the UN's IPCC. It is also the product of scientists and environmentalists who lobbied for the work to begin in the years before.
Not even Malta will be able to ignore this news but Greens have learned a lot in their 20 years or so of doing politics. No global problem can be addressed top down. All the world's governments cannot hope to make a dent in the challenge before us if they fail to engage their populations. In Malta, as elsewhere, the way to people's hearts and minds is often through their pocket.
It is only a very small minority who can make the connection between their electricity bill and melting glaciers, and what it means for their country's future. We are a tiny country and, within this small place, very few of us feel that anything they can do can make a difference. They may become interested if they can be made an offer which will increase their disposable income by reducing costs.
Every roof in the country can be producing electricity covering daytime consumption in most homes and generating a surplus which can be sold through the existing electricity meter. A profit can be made. Even if night-time consumption will remain a net loss, daytime generation can make up for it. What we should be asking ourselves is: why we do not have such systems up and running already?
The common wisdom on alternative energy, constantly reinforced by politicians in government, is that it is not economically feasible. It is a myth. How can it not be economically feasible in a country 100 per cent dependent on imported fossil fuels? Are the countries which have such systems completely crazy? Are we the only sane people on the planet?
If Malta had a Green in the political hot seat on energy, every rooftop would display photovoltaic panels or at least a solar water heater. There are plenty of possibilities for wind energy generation on a huge range - from small domestic turbines to giant ones capable of serving whole communities. Sewage sludge, whether from animal husbandry or from municipal sewage systems, can produce biogas as can all organic waste. There is nothing to stop anybody installing these low-tech systems almost anywhere.
Instead of encouraging us to seek out our alternative energy potential, government after government has acted as a wet blanket, shooting down every initiative, failing to provide start-up support, taxing equipment and above all failing to pressure Enemalta into buying electricity at a decent rate. For almost three decades, everything that needed to be documented about Malta's alternative energy potential has been documented: insolation, wind speed, biogas potential. Anybody with the least interest in the subject has all the info at hand at any time.
One look at our rooftops, and the EU Commission's bottom-of-the-pile rating for Malta on alternative energy is instantly confirmed. The problem is not technical - it is political. Its consequences are economic. Every oil price hike puts the thumbscrews on domestic economies; everybody needs a salary increase. With the country still trying to absorb a wage increase given years ago, no such possibility exists unless we want the economy to implode.
Given our situation, we should be aiming at the very highest levels of alternative energy production. If that were 20 per cent of total energy produced it would be more than significant both for individual families and for the country as a whole. A solar water heater can eliminate a fifth of the electricity consumption in our homes taken up for heating our bathwater. So far, most of us have been happier to spend far more than the cost of a low-tech solar water heater to acquire mahogany handrails and caryatids for our balconies. Electricity was relatively cheap.
Starting an alternative energy revolution is not a matter of being seen to have done something not to be relegated to the bottom of the list in the EU sweepstakes. It is a matter of galvanising homes and businesses into putting Malta at the top of the pile, not because we should be seeking kudos but because it suits us. Malta can lead the way and be the first in the EU if it were allowed to discover that it wanted to.
Sooner or later we will make some progress. Decades after the Greens advocate a policy, somebody else starts to move towards it. Perhaps it is business that gets there before Government. when it finally overcomes the red-tape jungle stifling progress.
It would be much better if the Greens were in charge: not only allowing things to happen but driving them on, making sure that every man, woman and child in the country knows where their interests lie, what is available to support them to choose the best technology, and defending their right to a place in the sun.
Instead we are at a pre-dawn stage. The government is politically averse to driving anything. It lets things happen. It believes that it should not interfere. It does not even believe that it has an obligation to remove existing bureaucratic obstacles. It does absolutely nothing but sit on its hands.
Does MEPA have any policy on insolation, the right to sunshine? Has it had anything like a hint of it from that pale ghost, the Malta Resources Authority? When my neighbour puts my roof in the shade depriving me of sunlight, am I to be left to sue for damages? Or is MEPA thinking of the economic consequences of allowing high-rises and low-rises which shade their neighbours?
When my neighbours down the road show the way by installing photovoltaic panels, what can I do when I realise that my roof is in the shade for several hours every day thanks to the smart investment of Mr X, who built a block of flats to delight in capital gains? My loss is easily qualifiable per hour of shade for an indefinite period: until I too decide to add a few storeys to my property. Who is going to pay?
Greens think of such issues. We have the solutions and, better still, we can anticipate problems to prevent them. Our aim is to prevent the polar icecaps melting by linking every home on the planet in a vast enterprise to avoid disaster.
In Malta we can achieve this aim by making people save on their electricity bills, improve their disposable income, improve the competitiveness of our economy by reducing pressure on wages and turning around our cost-productivity ratio by reducing costs. Homeowners will love it. Businesses will love it. They can choose to get it second-hand and half-heartedly, some time in the future, or maybe they can decide that they want it now and do something about it in the next election.
Dr Vassallo is chairman of Alternattiva Demokratika - The Green Party
www.alternattiva.org.mt; www.adgozo.com