A small aircraft with skis touched down on ice last week. The red Twin Otter carried a British Antarctic Survey glaciologist to a vast ice shelf on possibly the last visit before it disappears.

Temperatures on the Antarctic peninsula have warmed by about three degrees Celsius since 1950. Despite freezing weather this winter, on average the planet is getting warmer.

Melting sea ice has hardly any impact on sea levels because it is already floating, mostly underwater. What is worrying is the release of vast amounts of water held in land glaciers once the sea ice that keeps it there goes.

When the UN climate panel projected a top world sea level rise of 18 cm by 2100 it did not factor in the accelerating effect of warmer oceans on the polar caps. The projected increase in sea level has been revised to a higher water mark, with some major cities and low-lying countries in for devastating flooding.

Considering the future impact of a rise in sea level of a metre or more on our coastal towns, Marsascala, Marsa, Msida, Gżira and St Paul's Bay will be among the worst hit. Climate change is now expected to cause drastic changes within the lifetime of people alive today. A planned response must start without delay.

It is hoped that a new UN treaty between 190 nations will be hammered out by the end of this year to slow global warming by cutting emissions from power plants, cars and factories.

Climate expert and Nasa scientist James Hansen first alerted the world to global warming in 1988. He recently told the newly-elected US president that his term in office would be the last chance to avert disaster.

The EU has promised to do more to cut greenhouse gases (mainly carbon dioxide) if other countries sign up to a post-Kyoto agreement this year. Bringing the US, India and China on board will encourage Europe to raise its emissions reduction target from 20 to 30 per cent by 2020.

As a benchmark, European transport contributes nearly 20 per cent of all greenhouse gases produced in Europe. Bringing all trucks, buses, cars, trains, boats and planes to a halt would, in theory, come close to meeting the present target. Obviously, other ways have to be found, and individual countries are each drawing up their own strategy for it.

The more we mitigate now, the less Malta will have to adapt in future. Low-lying Holland is already asking itself how spatial planning can be made climate proof on a daily basis. In the UK, where a climate bill has been passed, the focus is on government leadership while noting that everyone has a responsibility to act. Italy sees its own lack of institutional co-ordination as a major barrier... something Malta also needs to address. In east European states, scepticism still runs high although experts in the Czech Republic have expressed the need for concrete sectoral measures.

Even if emissions stop today, climate change will continue for a long time due to the historical build up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. As a small island state, Malta's ability to adapt to climate change may be more limited than other countries.

Executive director of the European Environment Agency, Jacqueline McGlade, sets down just how serious things are to become:

"Climate change cuts across normal political and financial boundaries. It is no longer a matter for one or two ministers around national cabinet tables. It's a matter for heads of government and should be treated as such."

Up for public consultation until mid-March is Malta's national strategy for slowing down and adapting to water stress and rising seas, among other impacts of climate change. A document drawn up by the appointed committee has said that the capability within the Resources Ministry to address climate change was "not sufficient" - it urged Malta to create an administrative leadership to sustain policy over time.

Proposed abatement measures relating to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions in Malta include grafting climate change onto the national budget. Recommendations include a planning policy for new buildings to be designed for seamless plug-in of solar technology. Investors in domestic photovoltaic systems may benefit from government footing up to 60 per cent of the cost with new tariffs for industries which feed energy generated to the grid.

Government is advised to actively encourage cars that run on more environment-friendly gas within the next two years. Some European governments are already incentivising the €1,000 conversion from petrol to gas by 30 per cent.

Malta's unsustainable practice of producing desalinated water at great expense while facing major difficulties due to sustained illegal extraction from the water table must change. The recommendation is to halt the current practice of turning a blind eye and enforce legislation for buildings to capture and use rainwater starting mid-next year.

The economics of wind energy may promote this technology as key to the resource mix needed to reach one tenth of all energy generated from renewables. It will be interesting to see how the recommendation for government to designate sites on land for alternative energy will be met within planning parameters and connectivity to the grid.

A number of other recommendations in the plan were first proposed many years ago by the local branch of Friends of the Earth.

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