An inconvenient truth

On the 20th anniversary since Malta put climate change on the international agenda, our Ambassador on Climate Change, Michael Zammit Cutajar, speaks to Caroline Muscat and stresses the need for urgent action.

Charming, with penetrating green eyes and ruffled grey hair, Michael Zammit Cutajar's image certainly makes the cut. Malta's Ambassador on Climate Change possesses the stature of a diplomat and the passion of an activist, albeit better dressed. Yet, hopes of gaining any new insight into Malta's performance on this burning issue were immediately dashed:

"I am not someone who spends time studying Malta. I am Malta's Ambassador on Climate Change. I deal with things outside Malta. I am not a civil servant and I do not speak for government policies... I don't know what the policies are," he says.

"My job is to have a place in the international negotiations, building on my experience outside Malta where people think I have something to offer. And I have to go in with a flag of some country and my country is Malta."

Evidently, Mr Zammit Cutajar is a citizen of the world. Now based in Geneva, he has devoted most of his career to work in and out of the United Nations on international cooperation for development and environment.

Then, in 1988, the government made a move in the international arena that was quite out of character, especially since it focused on an environmental issue. It took the initiative to encourage the UN to address climate change by drawing up a resolution to be considered in the General Assembly. This put climate change on the UN agenda 20 years ago.

Mr Zammit Cutajar acknowledges Malta's giant step in this regard: "In 1988, Malta was still not part of the EU so free to take initiatives like that, and it did... It is a country that doesn't threaten anybody by taking it up. If the US or Russia had taken it up, the question would be, what is the strategic advantage they're seeking? Little Malta doesn't frighten anybody."

Under that item, the decision was taken to launch negotiations on a convention which came into place in 1992. And it was on that convention that the most significant agreement so far to tackle climate change came into existence - the Kyoto Protocol.

Malta's ambassador is quick to give credit where it is due: "I had absolutely nothing to do with that initiative. I was doing my thing in another part of the UN and didn't even know about it. It was Professor David Attard."

Yet, it was Mr Zammit Cutajar who was appointed to set up the secretariat of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1991 and headed it until his retirement in 2002, holding the prestigious rank of Assistant Secretary-General of the UN.

Now a new multilateral accord on climate change is being negotiated under the Bali Action Plan. Mr Zammit Cutajar has just been appointed chairman of the UN Working Group on this plan that should be completed when world governments meet in Copenhagen next year.

Last week, a key international meeting in Poland gathered world governments for a stock-taking effort before the Copenhagen deadline next year.

"There is a link between the two: the conference in Poland was a stepping stone between Bali, which launched a new negotiation, and Copenhagen next December that should end it. The other one was dealing with a commitment that had already been laid but some of what was going on there was dependent on what may happen in Copenhagen.

"The Brussels meeting was much more incisive - it had much greater impact. Although, you could say it was only about how to go about achieving an objective that the EU had already declared."

Europe has agreed by 2020 to cut its carbon emissions by at least 20 per cent below 1990 levels, obtain 20 per cent of all energy from renewable sources, and make energy efficiency savings of 20 per cent.

"You had all sorts of interests at play in Brussels - you had the new member states, not so much Malta and Cyprus but the east European new member states, seeking to have their interests recognised by the others. You had the German industry worried about competition from countries that would not have the same environmental standards... there were a number of interests at play. On top of a financial crisis and the prospect of recession; so it was pretty tough.

"The key, from the point of view of the outside world, consists of two elements: One is how much of the European effort is going to be undertaken at home and how much is going to be bought as offsets in other countries. The second is how protective the EU will be of the industries that feel threatened not only by the economic downturn but by competition from say, China, which doesn't have the same standards. The latter question will only be resolved after the result comes through from the Copenhagen UN conference next year," Mr Zammit Cutajar explained.

Is Malta bound by the same targets? "No," was the quick reply. "The EU is bound to 20/20/20; within that, everyone has their own share and that's what they were talking about in Brussels."

He does not clarify what the island's target is but says that "Malta has a very low starting point on renewables... There is a need for Malta to do more, but it's not 20 per cent and its target is low compared with others. It doesn't mean we shouldn't do more."

Malta's target is to achieve 10 per cent of energy from renewable energy sources by 2020. The country's intermediate target is to achieve two per cent of energy from renewable sources by 2010 to 2011.

The main project on the drawing board is a wind energy farm at Sikka l-Bajda in Mellieha that would provide four per cent of Malta's energy requirements, according to government declarations. The project remains controversial because of the chosen location and the fact that offshore wind farms are more expensive and risky than land-based farms.

Mr Zammit Cutajar chooses not to reply to questions over whether this is the best way forward when simple steps undertaken by other Mediterranean countries, like making solar-water heating compulsory, have not been considered in Malta. "I spend most of my time abroad. I don't even read The Times. I sometimes look it up on the web but...

"Clearly, there's scope for improving efficiency. About 50 per cent of what needs to be done to get global emissions down to where they should be could be done simply through using existing energy sources better.

"Just switching the lights off and using the right bulbs, energy efficient appliances, and cars that consume less... there is the available technology.

"There are barriers, maybe they are more expensive; you can get over that with incentives. It's important that we do it and it all adds up. We can't say we're too small, it doesn't matter. But we are small, so whether we do it or not doesn't change the big picture. But it's the little bits that add up and we're one of the little bits."

A national energy efficiency plan was launched by the Resources Ministry last month aimed at reducing energy emissions in Malta by nine per cent by 2016. If seriously implemented, it will shed some positive light on an otherwise bleak scenario.

At an EU level, out of all the new member states, only Malta, Cyprus and Slovenia increased their per capita emissions between 1990 and 2005. The latest figures by the National Statistics Office show that Malta has increased its greenhouse gas emissions, which contribute to climate change, by 45 per cent since 1990.

The NSO data also show that the lion's share of emissions emanates from energy industries. Enemalta admits that because the Marsa power station is so old, it is contributing to a higher energy bill and environmental burden.

An unreliable public transport system makes most of the country dependent on cars, which has led to an increase of emissions from road transport of 51 per cent.

The latest EU survey on the attitudes of European citizens towards the environment lists Malta at the lowest level of awareness about climate change as an environmental issue. Yet, a lack of awareness about the issue will not change the reality that as an island state, Malta is considered to be one of the more vulnerable countries to the consequences of climate change.

Mr Zammit Cutajar says that "Malta is a victim country. It's a typical case of a country that contributes very little but could suffer quite a lot from this climate change phenomenon."

He highlights water as a pressing concern: "I see it mainly as a question of water. We have always been water-stressed and with the growth of population and economy, the stress increases as does the investment in desalination, which is our major energy consumer, therefore a contributor to energy dependence.

"We're going to suffer in two ways: one is the rise in the sea level will contaminate the aquifer, the other is reduction in rainfall, which will reduce the supply of freshwater so we've got to pump more and more... it is really a pressing argument for a more effective water policy."

He believes that Malta is doing quite well in improving the efficiency of the desalination plants but, "I don't think we're doing that well in the efficiency of the distribution. Storage and distribution - we need to invest more in that, like catchment of rainwater, recycling of used water, and stopping water theft. All these things should be part of a policy which I hope will be forthcoming."

Malta did recognise its vulnerability to climate change in 2004. Its assessment in The First National Communication of Malta to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change states: "The most important impacts include the deterioration of potable water supplies and quality, more frequent extreme weather events, increase in soil erosion and an accentuated desertification process, threats to public health, changes in sea water mass characteristics and effects on fish stocks, sea level rise, coastal erosion and inundation, and reduced biodiversity... The degree of these consequences will in part depend on timeliness of implementation of adaptation measures."

The European Environmental Agency this year issued a more up-to date analysis of the predicted consequences of climate change in the region. In addition to the effects already acknowledged by Malta, the agency adds that there will be further economic impact as tourist demand for Mediterranean resorts is expected to decrease as summer temperatures and heatwaves increase.

Increased temperatures, can also have effects on human health. More than 70,000 deaths were reported in 12 European countries because of the heatwave in 2003. Such heatwaves are projected to become much more common later in the century as the climate continues to change.

With such a gloomy forecast, Malta's efforts on an international level certainly make good reading. During the UN climate meeting in Poland last week, the government announced it will be applying to join a group of 40 developed nations, including EU states and Japan, which lead the fight against global warming.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, during a meeting with Resources Minister George Pullicino who used the occasion to draw international attention to Malta's initiative 20 years ago, praised the island's latest declaration saying it was a strong statement of its commitment to fight climate change.

However, some attention to national matters may be a priority. The National Action Plan that accompanied Malta's assessment sent to the UN in 2004 is very detailed in its assessment of things that need to be addressed in the areas of energy, transport, water resources, solid waste management, agriculture, industry and health. In practice, the implementation of such measures leaves much to be desired.

If governments act with the same sense of urgency as Malta, there would not be much hope of averting the catastrophic consequences of climate change. The game is in the hands of bigger players.

US President-elect Barack Obama's pre-election statements have raised hopes of a change in direction from the US on this issue. Recent declarations have also been made that the US will take a lead in global efforts to address climate change.

For Mr Zammit Cutajar, this is "a more hopeful shade of grey" because a change of US President does not have the same weight as a change of Prime Minister in Malta or the UK. He says that the balance of regional interests in the country remains largely unchanged.

"President-elect Obama's statements so far offer a promise of a new look, not only at national targets but also at integrating climate change within a vision of economic recovery. People have been talking about a green new deal, maybe that's a bit big as a label, but the idea that technological innovation in the area of energy can be part of the drive of economic recovery and growth - that is clearly in Obama's sights and it is in EU sights as well.

"The question is, how high will this be in the Obama agenda? And more particularly, this is my vision of it, how soon he will take this matter up with China. Those two are the giants. They only have eyes for one another - like a courting couple just looking at each other and not seeing anybody else.

"My dream is that you'll have a bilateral (meeting) somewhere... in which they say, among other things, 'the two of us are going to solve the climate problem together with the help of our friends and we'll instruct our negotiators to do a deal to this effect in Copenhagen'. If that happens early, like March, then we really are on the fast track to success. If it doesn't, we'll still be waiting and wondering."