Cynthia Busuttil
More trees, different crops - fighting impact of climate change
Photo: Jason Borg
Planting different crops that could survive drier climatic conditions is one of the measures being looked into by a committee appointed to reduce the impact of climate change on the island.
David Spiteri Gingell, who is chairing the committee set up yesterday, told The Times another measure could be to build infrastructure that captures more water in case of more concentrated rainfall.
"If we have flash floods we need a system that would capture the water and let it leak back into the water table," he said.
Climate change is expected to lead to warmer summers, and Mr Spiteri Gingell said one idea could be to build more roof gardens and plant more trees to give more shade.
The Mediterranean is expected to experience a decline in annual precipitation, lower crop yields and an increased water demand for agriculture while being at higher risk of sea rise.
"Heat waves may have a negative effect on the elderly," he said during a press conference to launch the 10-strong committee.
There might be more deaths - especially among the elderly - from heat waves. Moreover, climate change could have an impact on tourism, with the hotter weather no longer attracting so many people to the island.
And, if African countries suffered from higher desertification, more people might seek migration to more arable lands.
The strategy, focusing on health and socio-economic policy, water and flooding and biodiversity and agriculture, is expected to be finalised and presented to the government by March.
Mr Spiteri Gingell admitted the recommendations could have "a substantial impact" on the economy. However, doing nothing could also have an impact.
In fact, the draft National Energy Policy, has already established that more than €1 billion is needed to modernise the energy sector.
Environment Minister George Pullicino said it was imperative to have adaptation measures in place to counter climate change.
Malta is committed to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 20 per cent from the 1990 levels and ensure 10 per cent of its energy is generated from clean sources by 2020. It has also pledged that by then, gas emissions would not be more than five per cent higher than those of 2005 in transport, agriculture and waste management.
Mr Spiteri Gingell said once the Marsa power station was closed down, Malta would make a quantum leap in reducing CO2 emissions. The power station has an efficiency of some 23 per cent of every barrel of oil.
Asked whether the 100 megawatt extension of the Delimara power station would prejudice the reduction of greenhouse gases, Mr Spiteri Gingell, who headed the Climate Change Committee, defended the decision to go for a fuel oil extension, saying it was impossible to switch to gas-generated energy today because the island lacked the infrastructure.
The extension became embroiled in controversy after the contract was awarded to Scandinavian company BWSC for a fuel oil turbine although another company made a cheaper bid for a more environmentally friendly gas turbine. BWSC's turbine could be converted to gas at an additional price tag of €27.5 million.
Mr Spiteri Gingell yesterday said the Climate Change Committee had told the government to start looking at gas energy but added this would not be possible for at least another five years. He said building a gas pipeline would not happen overnight and importing compressed natural gas would need a ship to dock every 18 hours.
Moreover, importing liquefied natural gas would need a shuttle every three weeks as well as an all-weather dock or an increase in storage capacity.
Mr Pullicino yesterday said the Cabinet has just approved a number of measures to address the extraction of water from boreholes, although he would not divulge what they were.
He said these were expected to be announced next month. The country was extracting 11 million cubic metres of water more than the country could sustain every year, he added.
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Alex Ellul
Aug 12th 2009, 18:22
@Paul Smith: Oil reserves are still high. In the 60's I used to read that oil would be exhausted by 1990's. The 90's came, even the new mellenium, but still the known reserves are increasing. Brazil has discovered another 'Saudi Arabia' of oil and tis is only one example. Peak oil is still centuries away. Fact is that politicians have turned the global warming years into climate change fantasy and now are turning it into a way of taxing people.
Paul Smith
Aug 12th 2009, 15:46
Alex Ellul
You may be right, only time will tell. It seems like Global warming has been used for some years now as a more sutle way of telling the global population without causing mass panic, that the world is quickly running out of Oil. Without oil it is not possible to support a global population of 7, 8 or 9 billion.
Joe Azzopardi
Aug 12th 2009, 14:18
Governments, and indeed the public in general, never heeded the environmental Cassandras. Well this is were such an attitude has brought us to!
Charles Grech
Aug 12th 2009, 12:53
Every drop of rain water falling on Malta should be saved; make every drop we use count.
Large tunnels, dug well underground, under our roads, could capture a great deal of water that fall on our island. With the machinery available today it should be too difficult or expensive to do such a project.
This would reduce the pressure on our RO plants, use less fuel to run them, reduce the CO2 emissions, have better health, and save money.
Alex Ellul
Aug 12th 2009, 12:38
Sea levels have stopped rising (few centimeters/century) for various reasons. The average global temperature has been on the down for 6 years and had been static for the previous 5 years. Global warming is over while all the predictions meted out by the IPCC with the help of publicity-seeking media are turning out to be wrong. While every scientist agrees that the planet has gone through a warming phase, the reasons why are now being found in other forcings other than Carbon Dioxide. THIS IS ALL BASED ON SCIENCE. Unfortunately, politics has hijacked science, turning it into junk science. Now that scientific reports and actual temperature readings are showing the opposite of what had been wrongly predicted, many politicans who had stepped on the global warming band wagon cannot concede that they were wrong, since their political platform will collapse.
Science is telling us that global warming follows global cooling which follows global warming etc etc.; cycles that this planet has gone through in the past mellenia, even during humanity's written histroy. Many thousands of scientists are sceptical on the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming, basing their opinion on science, peer-reviewed scientific reports and plain simple global thermometer readings.
Paul Smith
Aug 12th 2009, 12:33
Have to agree with Galea. L
Not a lot of joined up intelectual thinking or communication going on in Government, this is often the problem in democracies where any Tom Dick and Harry are elected but have zero real life experience or depth in fields of science and academia
Galea. L
Aug 12th 2009, 12:08
"Asked whether the 100 megawatt extension of the Delimara power station would prejudice the reduction of greenhouse gases, Mr Spiteri Gingell, who headed the Climate Change Committee, defended the decision to go for a fuel oil extension, saying it was impossible to switch to gas-generated energy today because the island lacked the infrastructure."
Then why did the Government not build the infrastructure as fast as possible in time for when the new turbine would have been ready since we still have to build the gas infrastructure in a few years when we have to change over to gas and we would also have to modify the new turbine to run on gas incurring an estimated €27.5 million more in expenses?
The gas reservoir could have easily been built by the Shipyards, but that another story as there were those who wanted to destroy them.
""If we have flash floods we need a system that would capture the water and let it leak back into the water table," he said."
By allowing valleys to be built and Wied il-Qlejgha to go to ruins.
Paul Barrett
Aug 12th 2009, 12:07
The easy way to meet the emissions target is to take the old bus and some of the really old commercial vehicles off the road until they meet modern emission standards.
For the water problem. Millions of gallons of water flood into the sea every year instead of being directed to underground water reservoirs both large and small throughout the Island to either be used direct or to filter into the aquifer. A "Waste not, want not" policy is required.
Paul Smith
Aug 12th 2009, 11:16
He said these were expected to be announced next month. The country was extracting 11 million cubic metres of water more than the country could sustain every year, he added.
Hmmm, me thinks you have a very very big problem. maybe time for a one child per family policy?
No water and no energy resources apart from imports as the planet enters it's energy decline, can someone please remind me how your going to feed 400,000 + People?
Serious issues - why was the government a sleep when they were being warned back in 2004?
C Micallef
Aug 12th 2009, 11:02
EVERGREEN trees should be planted as these never shed their leaves.
Solar powered street lamps should be used whenever possible
Who in this country presented for the first time for the general public to see the future map of Malta once the sea water level rises? My controversial 2 page feature article was titled, "Malta trims down for climate change" (The Sunday Times, March 25, 2007). The article had explained that much more than low-lying beaches will disappear. It also included Smart City.
Who raised the first awareness on the immense volume of CO2 that is liberated with each firework's explosion? I never said "ban fireworks" ... "moderation" is the key term.
Who explained that climate change does not solely concern old cars? As you can have a 60-yr-old woman perform better aerobics (without getting exhausted) than a 30-yr-old obese female who is obviously less fit, you may have an old, small, engine-tuned car that is most of the time garaged and a monsterous vehicle that as already clocked 50,000 miles in just 3 years.