With the world’s economy being severely tested, one could be forgiven for asking whether now is the best time to focus our attention on the environment. Some would say that, with international trade stuttering, we should be focusing our attention on development rather than the environment. To my mind, environment and development are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. Our economic well-being, now more than ever, depends on how we treat our environment.
This is one of the underpinning premises of our draft national environment policy. This policy document, which is being published today for public consultation, lists over 200 measures we are taking and which we propose to take to ensure a better environment for all.
Environment is one of the three pillars of sustainable development. In other words, our future depends on the way we treat our environment. The political and economic order we take for granted can be severely tested by issues such as climate change, fuel, waste and biodiversity. And before you assign these issues to the future or to science fiction, just think of how waste impacted the life of the residents of Naples.
Consider how the increase in the price of fuel challenged our economic well-being and our lifestyles.
Think about the islands of Maldives which soon may become the new Atlantis due to rising water levels caused by climate change.
For many decades, even centuries, we cared little about the environment. Our recklessness has caused damage, some of it irreparable to the eco-systems of this world, the eco-systems on which our own very existence depends. The world has woken up to the need to care more for the environment. Countries have realised that there are challenges that need to be tackled globally, issues that cannot be tackled by any one country on its own. This gave rise to global environment initiatives and targets.
We have such targets, mainly as a result of our European Union membership but not only. Our environmental targets, however, go beyond our international obligations. We have set targets in areas which are of particular relevance to us, to our environmental realities. These targets are all contained in the draft environmental policy.
We did not set these targets because we were drafting the national environment policy. Neither did we start working on achieving environmental gains because we were producing this document.
Our country, after years of allowing the environment to play second fiddle to economic development, is starting to make headway in achieving its environmental obligations. Yet more needs to be done. More is being done.
We have some noteworthy achievements: our country is one of the first countries that treats all its liquid waste; we are making substantial in-roads in dealing with solid waste in a more sustainable manner; we have designated 13 per cent of our land as Natura 2000 sites thereby granting these lands added environmental protection; we have designated a large extent of our waters as marine protected areas; we are upgrading the energy generation system to make it more environmentally friendly while investing in cleaner energy; we are investing in cleaner public transport; have upgraded our environmental protection laws to reflect today’s realities and needs, and are strengthening the enforcement and environment regulatory arms of government to help make sure that our laws are implemented and respected.
We have drawn up an impressive list of action plans and policies in key environment areas such as waste and air quality. Perhaps less tangible but equally important, as a country we have seen a shift in attitude towards the environment.
Today the environment is a prime consideration. We think and care about the environment much more than we used to. E-NGOs have played a significant role in pushing the environment up on the national and international agenda.
Over the coming weeks we will be welcoming your views and comments on this draft national environmental policy. This policy is not about the government. It is about you. It is about your environment.
It is about how you want to shape your future. It talks about how we will be using funds, public funds, your funds to create a better environment. It talks about how we see the economy and the environment interacting; it talks about how we wish to improve our immediate environment, how we aim to meet the global environmental challenges; it talks about our country’s precious resources and how to plan to use them sustainably, how health and the environment interact and on how we want to fast-track sustainable development in Gozo.
We got to this stage in the document by reaching out and getting different views, looking at data, asking questions and getting answers. Our quest now needs to go wider. We need your views in order to ensure that this country has a shared vision on this all important goal: creating a better and sound environment for all.
Dr de Marco is Parliamentary Secretary for Tourism, the Environment and Culture.