Resources Minister George Pullicino has had a meeting with UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, during which he presented him with a painting by Maltese artist Luciano Micallef. Also present were the Maltese Ambassador for Climate Change, Michael Zammit Cutajar,and the Permanent Secretary within the Ministry for Resources and Rural Affairs Christopher Ciantar.

The painting recalls Malta’s 1988 initiative in the UN General Assembly when it proposed the concept of “conservation of climate as part of the common concern of mankind”. This led to the 1990 decision to start the process that resulted in the UN climate change convention.

The UN Secretary-General said that Malta’s vision 20 years ago was phenomenal and stimulated this discussion world wide.

He said that Malta’s decision to move into Annex I to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) – changing its status to developed country – was a strong statement of Malta’s commitment to fight climate change.

Malta’s status as an EU member state also gave it an important role on the international stage and Malta was expected to voice the concerns of small island states that were highly vulnerable to climate change.

Mr Ban Ki-Moon said that the threats posed by climate change made this an economic issue and not simply an environmental matter. He augured that in the global restructuring which inevitably has to take place after the present financial turmoil, the world would be bold enough to adapt new cleaner technologies and turn this crisis in an opportunity to move towards a greener economy.