Plants growing on the side of a volcano in Ecuador have shifted their range by half a kilometre, gradually moving up the mountain in search of a cooler environment as the climate becomes warmer.

A sunflower-related species is now found growing more than 500 metres further up the slope than two centuries ago, when the German scientist Alexander von Humboldt first mapped the distribution of plants in the area.

In Malta, due its lack of mountainous areas, there is no such escape for species in search of a habitat in which they can survive, away from higher temperatures and rising seas.

Local action to reduce and adapt to climate change was the topic at a working seminar last month, hosted by Meusac.

Where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage there must be no dilly-dallying. The lack of full scientific certainty should not be a reason for postponing such measures, according to Malta’s new climate change law.

A framework for climate action in Malta was laid out under a Legal Act passed in July declaring protection of the climate as a “duty of every person together with the government”.

Precautionary measures to anticipate, prevent or minimise the causes of climate change and mitigate its adverse effects are to be taken. Scientists never like to eliminate possibilities and shy away from declaring total certainty about anything. However, any lingering doubts over whether it is human activity that is changing the climate are fading fast at the chance of somewhere between five and zero per cent.

Looking at the problem, experts have drawn a line. Any increase in the global average temperature needs to be kept below 2°C above pre-industrial levels in order to prevent the worst impacts of climate change. Global greenhouse gas emissions need to peak by 2020 at the latest, then drop by at least by half by 2050 (compared with 1990 levels) and reach zero by 2100 if we are to succeed.

Opening the Meusac meeting, Diane Spiteri, acting head of the European Commission Representation in Malta, said local civil society and NGOs “have to push our government to make the further carbon emission reductions needed”.

Spiteri added that research and innovation are very much needed, together with collaboration from the private sector, to achieve EU climate goals.

According to 2012 Eurostat figures, carbon dioxide emissions per inhabitant in Malta have been higher than countries such as Portugal, Sweden, Turkey and a number of East European member states. Shifts in the local energy sector are expected to have an impact on the amount of greenhouse gases Malta produces.

Unseasonal blossoming of a caper flower in October points to Malta’s warming climate.

Representatives from the environment ministry, Malta Resources Authority, the planning authority and Centre for Environmental Education and Research spoke on the challenges of mitigating and adapting to a changing climate.

One of the biggest threats facing the world today, climate change is sometimes seen as more of a global issue.

“We tend to forget that it starts at the local level,” remarked Meusac head Vanni Xuereb as he gave an overview of EU negotiations leading up to the pivotal Paris summit on climate change next month.

In September, the EU environment council presented Europe’s negotiating position for a legally binding international treaty to prevent global warming from reaching dangerous levels.

All countries party to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change at a preparatory meeting in Bonn last month agreed that more ambitious and immediate emissions cuts are needed and more urgent action is needed if the very worst impacts of climate change are to be avoided.

Over a 10-year period, Malta has already seen an increase in temperature of 0.8°C. This shows we are nearly half way to the crucial 2°C degree cap – and still talking rather than taking effective action

Malta’s low-carbon development strategy for green growth and climate resilience is in the making. A tender for its preparation went out from the environment ministry in May. The strategy is about getting the economic sector in Malta to develop in a way that is feasible for Malta through an inter-ministerial committee.

A national adaptation strategy should guide us toward adapting to those effects of climate change which, in a fast approaching future, we may not have managed to avoid globally. Some very specific actions are expected to come out of research financed by a climate action fund.

The importance of taking action now was stressed by Kathiana Ghio, director of the environment and climate change section of the Ministry for Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate: “We don’t just work within the boundaries of our island, we deal with a wider legal context.”

Malta could join other countries facing social and economic difficulties should future mass migrations be triggered by people moving away from areas too hot to live in. A recent scientific study has shown that parts of the Middle East may suffer future heatwaves beyond the limits of human survival if climate change goes unchecked.

Saviour Vassallo, senior environment protection officer at the Malta Resources Authority (MRA), referred to National Statistics Office data which showed that over a 10-year period, Malta has already seen an increase in temperature of 0.8°C since 2004, when compared with the decade following 1974. This shows how we are nearly half way to the crucial 2°C degree cap – and still talking rather than taking effective action.

“It’s not a problem that is too big for humanity, he said. “We can all start doing a little bit to contribute to the solution.”

Vassallo also mentioned the importance of protecting trees as they remove a certain amount of carbon from the atmosphere.

Adapt or perish, a basic rule ignored at their peril by the dinosaurs, still applies today. Paul Pace, director of the University’s Centre for Environmental Education and Research, spoke on the educational aspect and the correlation between knowledge and action. How much do we need to know before we take a decision to act?

“Our current economic model is not delivering the quality of life it has promised,” Pace pointed out, noting that education appeared to be an afterthought in the planning phase.

“Despite being aware of the problems and risks, we meet, talk, debate, but when it comes to doing something we fall back.”

Expressing extreme disappointment at successive governments’ lack of action, Brian Restall of the Malta Water Association took the MRA to task, saying it had been trusted with the care of local ground water yet the water resource had been left to suffer damaged due to overuse of boreholes.

The water issue is critical in Malta yet this was hardly mentioned even though the government’s own Climate Change Act and the European Commission both give Malta a legal basis to take action.

The impact of climate change on Malta’s water resource is a major threat. Water is protected and owned by the government but over the years it has become a privatised commodity by default since lack of enforcement over illegal boreholes prevails.

“Boreholes are collapsing our economic resource. How long will it be before we become totally reliant on reverse osmosis, with all the added greenhouse gas emissions this would entail?” queried Restall.

A message from Simone Borg, Malta’s ambassador for climate change at the UN, was read out at the seminar in which she called for the development of a resilient society that can create opportunities from climate change rather than remain vulnerable to it.

www.whatsyourimpact.org