The climate change guessing game

Leo Brincat (October 28) embarks on a guessing game in the latest of his missives regarding the submission of his private member's bill.

His insistence in maintaining this course of action with regard to the issue of climate change is somewhat puzzling, especially when one realises that his bill lacks any concrete proposals or proposed actions, which incidentally has characterised Mr Brincat's ongoing campaign on the subject.

I must stress that neither I, nor the government, have the intention of delaying the debate on Mr Brincat's bill. The debate will be held at the first available and opportune date and I hope that this will result in a fruitful debate.

While the government reiterates that it does not rule out legislating on this issue, at this stage it considers it premature to do so before taking important preliminary steps to be taken in establishing measures to be implemented in order for us to reach the 2020 targets.

Mr Brincat is jumping the gun by proposing legislation at this stage, and his main aim is to alienate the public from the fact that Labour does not want to propose anything on the matter in order for it not to confront any particular sector of the population.

The government feels that, just like other States which have issued legislation on climate change have done, it is crucial to formulate first and foremost a strategy that charts out the measures that we need to adopt in order to reach the abovementioned targets, as well as any other necessary mitigating and adaptation measures. It was for this very reason that the government decided in June of this year to set up a Committee of Experts, a non-departmental independent advisory body, to draw up proposals on how Malta should prepare itself to reach its commitments on climate change.

In the course of its work the committee met with a number of stakeholders, including with the Labour opposition represented by Mr Brincat. I cannot but mention the endless u-turns by Mr Brincat on the setting up of this Committee. Three months after its setting up, he proposed it! Realising the mistake, he started his campaign to discredit it, however after meeting with the committee and seeing first hand its professional modus operandi, he had no choice other than to hail the way it was carrying out the duties assigned.

The government is also committed to submit the draft strategy to a public consultation exercise once it is finalised. After a mature discussion within a specific time period, we hope there would be national consensus on this strategy so that the country will finally have a clear vision and plan on how to proceed in this domain. As to Mr Brincat's guessing, maybe even he could answer some pertinent questions which are very much in order, such as:

• whether he will use the parliamentary debate to publish Labour's concrete proposals on how Malta can effectively reach its emissions reductions targets?; or

• he will use the parliamentary debate to entice his colleague MP Roderick Galdes to tell us where the wind farms should be sited, especially since he boasted, some months back, that some experts had given him a report with such important data?

It is high time that Labour starts talking concretely and fends off the air of opportunism and void which surrounds their actions and proposals. I sincerely hope that the public consultation process will be truly popular and will encourage others to add their input to this national and crucial issue. I also hope that all stakeholders, including the opposition, will be involved in this process with constructive input and hopefully, also through the proposition of concrete measures which will help us reach our obligations, with the same vigour that it is piloting this initiative.