The Prime Minister’s candid admission in the heat of the last general election campaign that Malta was suffering from an “environmental deficit” and that he would be the right person to fix it, as he had done with the economic deficit, was probably one of the game-changing factors that enabled him to scrape home to victory. Over the last three-plus years, he has been fortunate in his choice of parliamentary secretary to tackle this sensitive issue.

Having successfully piloted the reform of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority through Parliament, Mario de Marco is now handling the Sustainable Development Bill. This draft law should be seen as a crucial adjunct to the Environmental and Development Planning Act, part of the government’s promise to tackle the environmental deficit and to give the environment equal status in the consideration of government policy with economic and social issues.

It is to be hoped that the Sustainable Development Bill will finally place the principles of sustainable development – to which much lip-service has hitherto been placed – at the centre of government, into all decisions and policies and the way the government operates. The dormant National Commission for Sustainable Development needs to be resuscitated and the National Sustainability Plan given new impetus, underpinned by a free-standing and independent full-time team to drive it forward.

The green party, Alternattiva Demokratika, has reminded Dr de Marco of an imaginative initiative that his father, the late President Emeritus Guido de Marco, had put forward at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit on climate change. As Foreign Affairs Minister, Prof. de Marco had proposed the appointment of a Guardian for Future Generations. The guardian, it was suggested, would act as a supranational entity under the auspices of the United Nations with the role of actively promoting the interests of the “voiceless” future generations before institutions and of advocating their rights when decisions being taken have long-term consequences that affect them negatively.

It is now being proposed that new life should be breathed into this concept by embedding it in the new law on sustainable development. Dr de Marco has said it will be considered.

There are, of course, obvious attractions in articulating in law the government’s good intentions “for present generations… to foresee possible risks and uncertainties that present economic, political and technological policies have on future generations” and for the guardian to be “the voice of those still unborn”. Yet, the practical implementation of such good intentions also needs to be thought through realistically and in a hard-headed manner.

Has article nine of the Constitution (safeguarding landscape and historical and artistic patrimony) led to parliamentarians protecting the environment and cultural heritage more effectively? The answer is probably that it has had little impact judging by the environmental degradation we see around us. When governments take decisions they do so invariably thinking they are doing so in the long-term interests of the nation. That hindsight proves this has not always been the case is simply a reflection of the frailty of human nature and of the short-sightedness of politicians.

Thus, Parliament must ensure it gives the person occupying the office of Guardian for Future Generations the teeth to overturn government policy and let his/her good judgement prevail when there are contrasting views, of course, allowing for resort to the courts where necessary. Otherwise, it would merely be pandering to public sensibilities.

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