Budgetary eco-nonsense

The Budget 2009 has been portrayed as a "green budget". It introduces an emissions tax on cars, it re-introduces an eco-tax on plastic bags and reveals a radical U-turn in favour of renewables. All commendable initiatives but with very little substance underneath the glossy surface.

Despite the rhetoric, the budget is severely handicapped by the lack of strategic vision of where we want to go, how and when.

I fear the budget measures will not bring about the necessary change in behaviour because the message being sent out to the population is very confusing, to say the least. Some eco-initiatives are in fact contradictory.

The forced removal of the registration tax presented an opportunity for a radical change in the mode in which we travel - but we did not capitalise on this opportunity. Rather, the government made a mess of the measures, which now require "some tweaking" (read as overhaul).

While on the one hand the budget imposed a very complex and unworkable circulation tax that attempts to penalise old cars on the basis of emissions, the tax applies only to cars and not to the main polluters such as buses, trucks, bowsers, vans and construction vehicles. On the other hand, it is now cheaper to import high-powered, fuel-guzzling vehicles (up to a staggering 2499cc engine capacity) than it was before! Hybrid cars are being heavily taxed and are more expensive than before. Simply absurd.

So with the reduction in the purchase cost of practically all types of cars, we're probably going to experience a surge in imports of cars, which will further aggravate our congestion problems. Imposing a hefty circulation tax on the cars once they're already in Malta may solve the Finance Minister's deficit problems but not the country's transportation problems.

We also had the re-introduction of the eco-tax on plastic bags. It is the government's stated intention that it wants to ban plastic bags but did not explain why. A hefty €0.15 tax was slapped on every plastic bag but there is one major flaw with this measure - we cannot do without plastic bags in Malta, at least not until the waste collection system is reformed. Plastic bags are re-used as garbage bags and it seems that this tried and tested system has given the best results over the years. Are we to go back to the unpractical and unpopular system of rubbish bins? So even if it is the government's intention to ban plastic bags, this simply cannot happen in practice.

The government had the opportunity to ensure that plastic bags could at least be bio-degradable (by introducing taxes that favour biodegradable plastic bags over non-degradable ones) but the tax as introduced is indiscriminate which means that we will now be flooded with cheap non-degradable plastic bags - a step backwards from the degradable bags we use today.

We have been told that each household will be given vouchers for five energy saving lamps and that this will result in energy savings of €175 a year. But the truth of the matter is the energy saving light bulbs will result in less than half the savings we are being led to believe. It would have been more effective if the government re-introduced the rebate scheme on energy efficient appliances that was terminated some months ago. Lighting consumes less than 10 per cent of the electricity used in a household; appliances account for the other 90 per cent. Where would you invest if you wanted a significant reduction in consumption - lighting or appliances?

The icing on the cake is the €130 million to be spent on an offshore wind farm at Is-Sikka l-Bajda. In the absence of a holistic renewable energy strategy a number of doubts on the feasibility of this project will inevitably surface over and over again. Are we sure that wind energy is the way to go? Or solar? Or waste-to-energy? Or all of them? And if so, in what proportions? Are we putting our money where we really will get the best return on investment? What measurements have been carried out to assess the wind energy potential on the Maltese islands? What public perception studies have been carried out to assess the population's reservations (if any) on wind farms? Shouldn't we first gain experience with smaller and less risky on-land turbines before investing hundreds of millions of euros in uncharted territory?

Ironically and unwittingly, it will be the steep increase in tariffs that will result in the greatest environmental improvement and not the so-called "green measures". However, I think that the population deserves a bit more carrot and less stick. Moreover, the population should know what actions merit a stick or a carrot. At present, we are just as confused as the government seems to be.

Engineer Cremona is an environmental activist and consultant.