Condoning illegality at Armier?

Next Friday the Malta Environment and Planning Authority will take a decision that some have already branded as a landmark one.

Was the pressure and arm-twisting by the squatting community at Armier so insidious?- Alan Deidun

Mepa will take a decision on a planning application submitted by Enemalta to develop a substation at Marfa to strengthen the electrical supply to the 800-odd-strong community at Armier.

This community, which has had the temerity to repeatedly embark on a series of much-trumpeted ‘initiatives’ involving hobnobbing with political parties and drafting jaw-dropping proposals, such as the one made in 2004 for the development of 1,589 rooms, three restaurants, five football pitches, a mini-market and a clinic.

Some of the proposals, which have made their way into the draft Marfa Action Plan, are even more shocking, such as the extension by almost four times the actual footprint taken up by the ‘boathouses’ against the payment of an annual rent.

As quite rightly pointed out by seven different environmental NGOs, if, God forbid, this application were to be endorsed, it would be playing into the hands of the squatting community as it would simply rubber-stamp further their usurping of public land. In fact, the community regularly wheels out the fact that they have been granted access to water and electricity by previous administrations as a formal endorsement of sorts.

The community feels so emboldened that it actually has a title to the land that it constituted a company – Armier Developments Ltd – to represent its interests. The approval of the application would also simply be propagating the message that, as long as you have the numbers, you can squat and usurp land with impunity in this country.

The mind boggles as to the justification and motivation given by Enemalta when applying for the permit – the fait accompli presented by this brazen application literally verges on the incredible. Just picture it – a parastatal entity submitting an application indirectly on behalf of a squatting community.

What and who persuaded Enemalta to expose itself so much by submitting this application? Was the pressure and arm-twisting by the squatting community at Armier so insidious?

The approval of this application would undo, with one fell swoop, what small but significant improvements in Mepa’s image have been painstakingly achieved over the past few months.

This is well and truly a serious litmus test.

Responsible chocolate

While chomping your way through some delectable chocolates, you may wish to spare a though on how responsible the chocolate industry is.

A Panorama feature on BBC some months ago revealed very explicitly some unsavoury aspects of the trade in cocoa (the crop from which chocolate is produced) in the countries of origin, like Ivory Coast, Ghana and Burkina Faso in western Africa, which are fuelling a rampant child labour and slavery market and a dramatically low rate of school attendance by children who are coerced to help their families in the plantations or are even sold as slaves on the market.

US Congressman Eliot Engel can be considered as somewhat of a whistle-blower on this issue as, nine years ago, he proposed legislation that would have required all chocolate sold in America to state on the label that it is slave-labour-free or child-slave-labour-free. Unfortunately, he was talked out if it, agreeing instead to an industry regulated six-point plan to put an end to child labour in the chocolate trade, with the threat of legislation looming should they fail to act. Unsurprisingly, these measures have failed miserably.

Silver linings have been registered in that the Fairtrade cocoa cooperative in Ghana occasionally suspends suppliers if instances of child labour are uncovered. The Fairtrade Foundation is the independent non-profit organisation that licenses use of the Fairtrade mark on products in the UK in accordance with internationally agreed Fairtrade standards.

The foundation was established in 1992 by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Oxfam, Traidcraft, the World development Movement, and thre National Federation of Women’s Institutes. It promotes commendable practices such as a minimum price to farmers in developing countries and that an adequate portion of the proceeds goes to the supply community through the engagement of Fairtrade with local cooperatives.

Nowadays, besides chocolate, a wide range of other goods fall within the remit of such a certification, such as vegetables, fruit, cotton, vegetables and even gold. The Fairtrade certification is not a cast iron assurance, however. For instance, the BBC Panorama team found evidence of an Ivorian farmer relying on his two sons (an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old) to harvest cocoa, with the Fairtrade cooperative he was supplying in turn supplying Nestlé Kit Kat in the UK.

Car emissions targets

According to data recently released by the European Environmental Agency (EEA), several car manufacturers must strive to reduce further the carbon dioxide emissions of their fleet to comply with even more stringent emissions thresholds set for 2012 and 2015.

The EEA ad hoc report on the issue states that: “Road transport is responsible for 17.5 per cent of overall greenhouse gas emissions in Europe and its emissions increased by 23 per cent between 1990 and 2009. To reduce the CO2 emissions of the road transport sector, European legislation has introduced mandatory CO2 emissions limits for new passenger cars.

“The average emission level of a new car registered in the EU in 2010 was 140.3g CO2/km. Overall, car manufacturers must achieve a CO2 emission target of 130g CO2/km by 2015 as an average value for the fleet of new cars registered in the EU. This target will be gradually phased in from 2012.”

The key findings of the report include the following:

Thirty-two car manufacturers, representing almost 80 per cent of 2010 registrations in the EU, already achieve their 2012 specific emissions targets two years in advance.

If car manufacturers make no further improvements in carbon efficiency of new cars between 2010 and 2012, non-compliant manufacturers could face fines which in total would add up to €10 billion.

Toyota Motor Europe is already compliant with its 2012 target, and also less than one gram CO2/km from the more stringent 2015 target. Peugeot and Citroën are also both close to reaching their 2015 target already. These manufacturers need to cut their emissions by less than five grams CO2/km to meet the target, a value corresponding to the average reduction of emissions from new passenger cars between 2009 and 2010 in Europe.

Among the larger manufacturers, Daimler AG, Honda Motor Co, Nissan International SA, General Motors Company, Mazda Motor Corporation and Dacia will have to reduce the average emissions of their fleets by more than 14g CO2/km over the next five years.

There are three manufacturers that produce only electric vehicles – so their emissions are listed as zero. Of the manufacturers producing some conventional-fuelled cars, Maruti Suzuki India Ltd had the lowest CO2 emission level overall (104g CO2/Km).

The average mass of its fleet is the lowest among all the car manufacturers registering vehicles in Europe. Among the larger manufacturers, Fiat Group Automobiles Spa had the lowest average CO2 emissions in 2010 (125g CO2/km).

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