Editorial

A recent report by the Ministry of Infrastructure shows that air pollution continues to exceed the limits set by the EU's Air Quality Framework Directive. The report focuses on three pollutants: benzene, nitrogen oxide and particulate matter.

Nitrogen dioxide, emitted by both petrol and diesel vehicles, increased in concentration between 2004 and 2007 and there are indications that this was due to the increase in the number of vehicles. Benzene, a cancer-producing substance emitted from petrol-powered cars, exceeded acceptable levels in the heavily populated areas of Sliema, Floriana, Birkirkara and Ħamrun, where traffic control measures are being proposed to cut pollution levels. Other excessive pollution was recorded in particulate matter emissions, which are largely caused by diesel-powered cars.

The report makes various proposals to redress the situation, ranging from straightforward measures, such as reducing exhaust from polluting vehicles, enforcing fuel quality control and fiscal incentives for vehicles with cleaner technologies to less obvious changes, such as having temporary lane conversions to alleviate heavy traffic flows.

It recommends the promotion of car pooling and sharing, an increase in the bus fares on routes where pollution thresholds are being exceeded, a certification exercise for all vehicle roadworthy test stations, the improvement of alternative modes of transport and changes to our working routines to encourage more working from home. All this is well and good and greatly to be commended.

The document also lays emphasis on the fact that the success of such measures hinges on a radical reform of public transport, which should come to fruition in 2010, acknowledging that people would not be willing to forsake the use of their personal vehicles unless an efficient public transport system were in place.

But is pinning our hopes on the public transport reform, unveiled in some detail a few days ago, a sufficient answer to this poisonous problem? As successive reports have shown - most notably the report by The Today Public Policy Institute last year, Towards a Low Carbon Society: The Nation's Health, Energy Security and Fossil Fuels, we are literally poisoning the lungs of those living in Malta to the severe detriment of our health and quality of life.

Action to change our culture of car dependency needs to be more far-reaching than simply a comprehensive public transport reform, desirable and essential though this will be. It must be matched by a concerted and sustained public education campaign, backed up by economic incentives and severe penalties - the carrot and the stick - to change our habits.

Above all, it requires a firm dose of political will and the allocation of resources to deal with pollution when it occurs. The appalling revelation a few months ago, that the already inadequate SMS-reporting scheme, "Emissions Alert", had been quietly suspended by the ADT and the recent report that the emergency service provided by Mepa for the public to report environmental pollution had also been "suspended" do not augur well. Our government pays lip-service to this issue - one among many to which The Times has consistently drawn attention - with little or no tangible results.

The time has surely come for action. The Ministry of Infrastucture's report, though making all the right noises, fails to show that it is also willing to implement that which it so commendably recommends.