Editorial

The Climate Change Convention in Rio in 1992, the 1997 Kyoto Protocol and the 2009 Copenhagen meeting managed to make little headway despite the fact that action needed is serious, urgent and growing.

Climate change is mainly the cause of the burning of fossil fuels but also deforestation, extractive industries, forest degradation, industrial agriculture and meat production, urbanisation and unsustainable use of natural resources. These are raising temperatures, contributing to desertification, shifting weather patterns, drought, melting ice and snow, sea level rise, increased rainfall and flooding, migration from affected countries, forest fires, biodiversity loss, disrupted ecosystems, hunger, water availability, new vector-borne diseases, higher mortality and more financial pressures.

Greenhouse gases are already very high, resulting in an out-of-balance climate system. This imbalance cannot but change the global physical and biological fabric, the poorest countries and their people being the first and the most to suffer.

Such a global crisis can make life on this island very difficult. When the impacts are seen or felt, it will be too late to reverse the process. Changes in the biological fabric disrupts marine and terrestrial ecosystems, change food chains, eliminate pollinators, impact fishing stocks, agriculture and livestock rearing, deplete fresh water supplies, lead to demand for funds to address such a scenario and, at national levels, raise spending needs, stretch revenues and worsen public finances.

Thus, the recently launched National Climate Change Adaptation Strategy report deserves a strong public input. However, focusing on targets is meaningless unless the action required is taken immediately. If the example of a one-time fiscal tax from a cut-off date (2007) to be levied on those who do not have a water cistern, according to an 1880 law, is an indication of how the issue will be addressed, then problems are likely to abound. No amount of tax levied will directly save one single drop of water and this would only legally absolve those in breach of the law.

This country must come to terms with the fact that tackling climate change is a pro-growth strategy which, if ignored, will ultimately undermine economic growth. It is not a question of mitigation; this will postpone the issue to a future date. Combating climate change today will come at a much lower cost than dealing with negative impacts and irreversible effects tomorrow. Yet, Malta does not seem to be doing enough, as the Climate Policy Tracker report released by the WWF earlier this week clearly indicates. Malta was given an F in an A to G scale, A being the highest score.

Those who argue economic and political resistance is the main hurdle in achieving an international consensus on sound economic, social and environmental measures to combat climate change cannot really be blamed. Sceptics on the negative impact of climate change address it only from a narrow economic aspect, ignoring the social and ecological deficit. The Bush Administration decision not to sign the Kyoto Protocol because it “would cause serious harm to the US economy” reflects such mentality. Neither can one criticise those who feel there is no collective political will, devoid of rhetoric and defensive posturing.

There is great public awareness, at both national and international level, on the benefits of effective early action which far outweighs the future costs incurred to address the social and ecological deficits. Unfortunately, the global political approach in this direction is not something to shout about.