A fight for the environment

"Now that we have reduced the financial deficit, the government's priority will be to reduce the environment deficit." This was Lawrence Gonzi's clear statement all through the election campaign as he verbally affirmed that, during his second term as Malta's Prime Minister, he would take personal responsibility for a reform of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority - Mepa.

Now that Dr Gonzi won one of Malta's toughest general elections, a new PN government will be giving more importance to our environment, which will be at the heart of the new Administration's policies. It's true, during the past years the Nationalist government focused a lot of energy on various environmental projects and, yet, there is still much more to be done to better the environment we live in.

The two biggest environmental challenges faced by the past PN government were balancing the environment with sustainable development and the issue of climate change.

As noted by Dr Gonzi prior to the election, the new management will be working to invest heavily in an offshore wind farm that would churn out the equivalent of a fifth of the power now generated by the power stations.

Additionally, the Prime Minister's commitment to ensure a better environment is constantly evident. Some days ago, Dr Gonzi spoke about his intention to work closely with local councils on improving the environment.

Climate change is, undoubtedly, a matter of huge importance for our country. The second government led by Dr Gonzi will have to do its utmost to slash greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent by 2020 and increase the share of green energy in the energy mix by the same date. EU leaders agreed this month to enact laws by March 2009 to meet this goal.

Also this month, the European Popular Party leaders, including the 10 heads of governments from EU member states and four from non-EU countries, met in Brussels to debate the challenge of climate change and the agenda of the European Council, among other topics.

There was agreement on the need to tackle this topic and a call was made for all EU institutions to coordinate their efforts in this fight. Climate change is the greatest environmental challenge facing the world today. Rising global temperatures will bring changes in weather patterns, rising sea levels and increased frequency and intensity of extreme weather. Malta is described as one of the most crowded spaces in the world and highly vulnerable to climate change. Rising sea levels in the Mediterranean caused by global warming are threatening to submerge parts of the island.

The issue of climate change is unmistakably on the agenda of many countries. It is also one of the top priorities of the EU.

During this month, Japan hosted a three-day international climate change conference and the EU deputy director general for the environment, Jos Delbeke, on behalf of the EU, again called for numerical targets to effectively fight climate change. A lot of work has been done but much more has still to be done in order to fight this ever-growing problem.

All over the world, many are talking about the issue of climate change. Lately, an environmental report, Australian Species And Climate Change, revealed that climate change is posing a serious threat to native species and, eventually, an advantage for introduced pests like the cane toad.

In New Zealand local scientists have developed what they believe is a world first: a new way to measure the release of greenhouse gas locked in soil hence considered to be a climate change prediction breakthrough. Today's world needs to forecast how climate change will progress and, according to a discovery made in a joint study with Scottish scientists, we may be able to anticipate how quickly our planet will warm up. In a few words, these scientists are claiming that through the amount of "old carbon" (which has been locked up in the soil for hundreds of years) one can provide the clues to help predict climate change.

The problem of global warming is persisting all over the world. According to various environmentalists, the way in which developing economies are growing is not helping the environment. Having said that, who are we to tell the developing economies to go without certain things (such as mobile phones, TV sets, fridges etc) to protect the earth from global warming?

Rupert Soames, chief executive of the world's leading temporary power supplier, Aggreko, says that studies have produced a solution to increasing concerns over global warming. According to him, there are about 8,000 power stations in the world and the vast majority are highly polluting coal-fired plants.

If the world is serious about making an impact against global warming, then he is suggesting turning the worst 15-polluters around the world into clean nuclear stations and the effect would be identical to having every single car in the world taken off the road at once.

This is a dramatic conclusion but at the same time interesting and challenging when one considers the results the world can achieve if this assumption is credible enough.

Mr Casa is a Nationalist member of the European Parliament.

david.casa@europarl.europa.eu, www.davidcasa.eu