Nine months ago, the Today Public Policy Institute presented a report, Towards A Low Carbon Society: The Nations Health, Energy Security And Fossil Fuels, to the government. The key message in this report was that abuse of fossil fuel energy without regard for the consequences was a fundamental threat to the nation's health from pollution and that investing in renewable energy was now a matter of urgency. Underlying all Malta's environmental problems is a general indifference to the consequences of continuing with our polluting and high carbon way of life.
To date, the government, perhaps for understandable reasons, has largely concentrated its efforts on wealth creation. It has only paid lip service to Malta's energy situation through commissioning numerous expert reports paid out of the national coffers. The ecology and environment of our finite islands have been degraded by the relentless pursuit of economic growth while Malta remains 100 per cent dependent on oil for electricity generation, transport and much of its water generation. It continues to foster a car-dependent way of life by building streets and roads for cars only, ignoring other transport modalities and omitting the needs of pedestrians, children or cyclists. The consequence of this is severe, health-debilitating pollution.
Our high rate of private car ownership and extreme car dependency results in pollution from traffic in excess of permissible limits set by the EU and the World Health Organisation. People continue to use private cars as prodigally as ever and buses still emit toxic black smoke regardless. No effective measures have been taken to discourage excessive car use or to induce a trend to smaller, less polluting cars. Attempts at promoting cycling for short commuting distances are absent or misguided.
The inevitable consequence of this is a negative impact on health both from traffic pollution and lack of exercise. Scientifically proven effects of street pollution on health are increased lung cancer rates, shortened life span due to premature death from heart and lung disorders and permanent lung damage in growing children. These effects are severe in built-up areas subject to heavy traffic where the prevalence of childhood asthma in Malta is known to be the highest ever observed internationally. Pollution is both preventable and unnecessary.
Medicine has both a clinical and political dimension and people have a right to health. This right should be protected. Our health authority cannot remain silent on the threat to health from pollution and should demand measures markedly to reduce pollution.
Malta's renewable energy choices are limited to wind and sun. Since energy security lies in diversity, an essential further element in Malta's energy mix is connection to the EU grid. This will also eventually provide a buffer to the intermittency of wind- and sun-derived energy.
The acquisition and installation of renewable energy sources should be approached more vigorously and realistically. Land-based wind technology is now highly advanced, immediately available and less expensive than offshore technology. Some years ago a proposal by a private company to build a large-scale wind-farm at Marfa was summarily turned down on the basis of ungrounded fears of a "visual impact" and the negative effect on tourism. This was a missed opportunity. Had this project come to fruition, we would now have had a clear notion of the potential of wind energy in Malta and whether land-based wind-farms are acceptable. Our technicians would have gained hands-on experience in the servicing and maintenance of wind energy generators and we would have tested the logistics of adding a major (intermittent) source of electricity to our grid.
The energy-saving potential from solar water-heating is enormous and rooftop photovoltaic panels can contribute a significant amount of clean energy. Installation of subsidised domestic rooftop solar water heating and photovoltaic electricity generation units remains bedevilled by undue bureaucracy, long delays in the approval of subsidies and ungenerous payback rates for excess energy fed back into the grid. The roofs of government buildings remain unexploited for solar energy generation.
In-built energy-efficient features can save as much as 40 per cent of energy requirements of buildings. Yet, energy efficiency still remains non-existent in new buildings despite a legal requirement to enforce energy-efficiency.
Piecemeal approaches to the problem are ineffective. The solution lies in a holistic approach. A fundamental change in attitude is essential. Public health must come before powerful vested interests. An added bonus to reducing Malta's pollution is that this will also automatically reduce Malta's carbon emissions and help us achieve the EU targets, which we are bound to meet, by 2020. At the rate we are going we are unlikely to do so. The recent announcement of a new draft energy policy is encouraging but action, not debate, is now of the essence.
Dr Debono is a member of the board of The Today Public Policy Institute.
gdmc@kemmunet.net.mt