Editorial

This is a pivotal point in the debate on global warming and climate change. Today, world leaders from at least 100 countries start to assemble in Copenhagen, not 1,500 miles from here, to take decisions that will affect the future well-being and survival of the planet. This will be the most important year for climate change since the Kyoto Protocol was agreed eight years ago. The deal to replace it is meant to be done in the Danish capital. If there is no deal - or no imminent prospect of one - mankind will find itself poised for probably its greatest ever trial.

There are mixed signals on what the outcome of these talks might be. A binding agreement on cutting carbon emissions seems unlikely. But some kind of political agreement could yet be struck now that both US President Barack Obama and Chinese Premier Wen Jibau will be attending. China is now the world's biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, yet, America still spews out five times as much per person. Developing nations, such as China and India, want the rich countries to do far more to reduce carbon emissions before asking poorer, developing states to forsake fossil fuels. This is the nub of the argument.

Global warming is a serious threat. It is not conjecture, supposition, scare-mongering or a partisan over-statement. It is a clear and present danger. The world needs to take steps to try to avert it. No one can predict the outcome of climate change or its effects with complete certainty. There are indeed legitimate debates over particular details and effects of the world climate system. But scientists know enough to understand the risks.

Despite the sceptics, scientific evidence that climate change is already under way, is man-made and is likely to continue happening underpins the policy that is intended to transform the world's carbon-intensive economy into one which no longer pumps greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. The job of the politicians at Copenhagen is to find fair and practical solutions to achieve this goal. This will involve hard choices and hard decisions. The task is formidable. The stakes could not be higher. The focus must be on action not talk and leaders cannot afford to waste time on somehow mediating in the row between climate scientists and sceptics about research on the causes and extent of global warming.

Malta, albeit a minute player in this drama, will not be immune from the effects of global warming, which will affect it in many ways. The threat of inundation from a rise in sea levels cannot be excluded. There will be severe water shortages and droughts as rainfall over the central Mediterranean is drastically reduced. There will be more frequent extreme and haphazard weather patterns with prolonged Saharan heat-waves, shorter, more intense rainy periods and longer, drier spells. Desertification and the loss of many natural flora and fauna will transform the look of the island. The near-perfect climate that Malta has enjoyed will become a thing of the past. Unless there is a successful deal in Copenhagen, for the majority of people in Malta alive today this may become the reality within 15 or 20 years.

Time is now of the essence. It is therefore crucial that world leaders meeting in Copenhagen exercise the vision, statesmanship and political will - not the short-term economic and electoral considerations that so often drive them - to secure the fair and effective global deal that is so desperately needed to avert potential catastrophe.