Photo: Matthew MirabelliMalta has long signified its commitment towards reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by signing up to the Kyoto Protocol in 2009 and subsequently reaffirming its commitment by being among the first EU member states to ratify the Paris Agreement in its own right.
Addressing global warming is a must and as such we are fully committed to this cause. Being the smallest EU member state, we have to face the realities our small size imposes in terms of our realistic mitigation potential. Let it be known that Malta’s total GHG emissions, in absolute terms, are the lowest in the EU and are also one of the lowest on a per capita basis.
It is when considering GHG emission per GDP that Malta already was disadvantaged from the starting point in the Kyoto framework till 2020 where it was allowed to increase its emissions only by five per cent and is now being asked to achieve a more ambitious target by 2030.
This implies that we are, to a certain extent, victims of our own economic success. To put the matter further into context, Malta’s total GHG emissions account for less than 0.06 per cent of total EU GHG emissions as at 2015.
The European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) covers emissions from large industrial installations such as power generation and energy-intensive industries. A capped amount of GHG emissions are allocated among existing EU-based installations who have the incentive to optimise their performance and to trade their excess allocation thereby providing installations with financial incentives that reward the reduction of emissions.
Malta, through Enemalta, for example, has traded emissions allocated to its installations and generated revenue therefrom.
Electricity generation had historically been the primary GHG emitter in Malta. Significant government investments in recent infrastructural developments such as the electricity interconnector between Malta and Sicily, and the transition from heavy fuel oil-fired power installations to gas-fire CCGT plants led to the decommissioning of the Marsa power plant.
The overall result was a significant reduction in emissions generated. It suffices to say that the effect of the interconnector caused Malta’s emissions to drop by about 21 per cent between 2014 and 2015.
The non-ETS emissions, governed by what is referred to as the Effort Sharing Decision, include emissions from households, buildings, transport, agriculture, services and smaller industrial installations. Non-ETS emissions are broken down into legally binding national targets for all MS.
The main emitters under this cap in Malta include the transportation sector as well as the use of HFC refrigerants. Under the ESD regulation, national emission targets for 2020, are expressed as percentage changes from 2005 levels. Malta’s target is +five per cent by 2020 over its 2005 emissions.
It is here that we face the incongruency where, despite having the lowest GHG emissions on a per capita basis in the EU, in terms of the allocation of emission reduction responsibilities between EU member states to achieve the EU’s targets as committed under the Paris 2015 Climate Change Agreement, Malta is bound to achieve what we consider to be an ambitious target by 2030.
It is already a challenge for us to keep our emissions at this unprecedented, historically low level witnessed this century, let alone the challenge that decreasing them would present us with.
Cultural and societal realities of our everyday lives are characterised by how we interact with the modern world, and this charts the energy and resources we consume. Achieving the proposed reductions will require us to make behavioural changes to what is today our ‘comfort zone’ and to which, as a society, we need to respond to.
We must however realise that such emission reductions form part of a set of international level commitments, made by practically all the countries of the world, to address the harmful effects of climate change.
It is already a challenge for us to keep our emissions at this unprecedented, historically low level witnessed this century
Clearly emission reductions will invariably have a positive impact on our well-being. This, however, entails a behavioural shift by altering our modus operandi in the way we respond to our need to use road-based transportation, in the use of heating and cooling mechanisms, in the need to make waste separation and recycling efforts a way of life.
It is these actions and others which characterise our daily behaviour that will enable us to achieve lower GHG emissions. This is our collective national responsibility, one which we need to achieve within the principles of sustainability – economic, social and environmental – and one which needs to be resilient in the long term.
In the absence of our willingness to change and our desire to avoid economic shocks that could undo what we have achieved together, the resulting gap can be addressed through the use of an alternative mechanism afforded to us in this sector. And this is what we have done.
We have chosen to purchase a portion of the emissions we could not afford to reduce in order to secure our resilience and sustainability in the EU via the flexibility mechanism available at EU level. This can be considered to be an investment that government has opted for in order to preserve our economic growth, foster our social cohesion while minimising to what is realistically possible the impact of our actions on the environment.
Moreover, without compromising what is commercially sensitive information, I would like to reassure the Maltese public that the government sought quotations from a number of countries prior to entering into an agreement with the government of Bulgaria which offer represented the best value for money that befitted Malta.
Mitigation action is being undertaken in the areas of transport, housing, and waste through national sectoral strategies with measures which contribute to GHG emission reductions.
Promoting electromobility through grants for electric vehicles, enhancing the public transport system to prompt a modal shift and increase patronage, issuing schemes for improved energy efficiency in buildings, encouraging installation of PVs for residential and industrial buildings, embarking on a nationwide campaign for the source separation of organic waste – are among the initiatives being driven by Malta to take mitigation action.
With our feet on the ground we need to realise that such action comes at a cost and depends for its success on the collective effort of society at large.
As the Minister for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change I reiterate our commitment towards the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 and this includes reduced pollution and reduced GHG emissions.
We are working hard in this direction but cannot be successful without the individual effort and commitment of each one of us to change production and consumption behaviours to achieve the desired sustainable outcomes at the economic, social and environmental levels.
José Herrera is Minister for Sustainable Development, Environment and Climate Change.