Labour presents climate change Bill

Labour MP Leo Brincat yesterday presented a Private Member's Bill on climate change calling for a strategic plan that would demand annual progress reports from the government.

Mr Brincat accused the government of dragging its feet on the issue of climate change and insisted the time has come to put the subject high on the national agenda and draw up a strategic plan based on accountability to ensure action.

The Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs reacted saying it was premature to be discussing control mechanisms on the implementation of the strategy.

The Climate Change Committee, appointed in June, would be drawing up its recommendations for a national strategy on climate change in the next couple of weeks, the ministry said. These recommendations would then be open for public consultation and the government is not ruling out launching measures to ensure that the national strategy is implemented effectively.

Speaking to the media soon after presenting the Bill to the Clerk of the House of Representatives, Mr Brincat explained that when he initially mentioned his plan to submit the Bill, his aim was to "trigger the government into doing something". Since there was no official reaction, he took his suggestions to Parliament.

The Bill proposes a law drawn up together with a committee of experts appointed with the approval of both the government and the opposition. The draft should only be presented in Parliament after being discussed and agreed upon by stakeholders, especially those in the environmental sector, he said.

The Private Member's Bill also proposes that Malta's carbon dioxide emission targets and the strategic plan of action on climate change be laid down in the law. It calls for a system under which the government will be expected to deliver an annual progress report to be discussed in Parliament.

The draft Bill also calls for the government to estimate, in a transparent manner, the way in which climate change will impact the country in general and in specific sectors such as tourism, illegal immigration and water resources.

Commenting on the Climate Change Committee, Mr Brincat said it is not wide-ranging enough, stressing the fact that there is no yardstick to make sure recommendations are implemented.

"It's time to have strategic plans for which people can be made accountable and responsible if they don't actually deliver," he said, adding that climate change should be handled in a non-partisan way.

It is entirely up to the government to decide whether to take the Private Member's Bill to the next level and include it on the agenda of the House.

Environment NGO Friends of the Earth (FOE) welcomed Mr Brincat's Bill as the way forward to make sure that the present and future governments are committed to act on the pressing issue of climate change.

"By committing to legislating the Bill, the government would be taking the lead and answering the call for a ground-breaking piece of legislation that all political parties should be proud of," FOE said, calling on citizens to send a letter to their MPs asking them to vote in favour of the legislation.