The Government has launched a consultation process on a green economy policy, aiming to have a bottom-up approach which will be based on the feedback from stakeholders.

The green economy is a wide-ranging concept that includes anything where the common objective is to provide goods and services which reduce the impact on the environment.

This means renewable energy – on which $200bn is spent annually, electric vehicles and energy-saving devices, waste and water management, recycling, financing of investment and ecotourism, to name but a few initiatives.

The process was kicked off by a well attended public meeting which brought together representatives from the constituted bodies, NGOs, local councils and others.

Two foreign speakers –William Parnell who heads the Irish Competitiveness & Climate Change Unit, and Nathan Goode from Grant Thornton UK – gave a similar message: Businesses may have seen the green economy as a threat in the past but they are now the ones that are pushing governments to move faster.

One of the first things to tackle would be to define what the green economy is, as well as to define green jobs. However, the speakers also stressed that a successful policy was one which cut across various ministries.

The initiative has been entrusted by Cabinet to the Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change, in collaboration with the Ministry for Education and Employment.

Environment Minister Leo Brincat said that it was not enough to set 2020 as the time horizon and that intermediate targets were required.

“People have had more than enough of conferences. What they want now is concrete action,” he said.

Those interested in submitting feedback should contact greeneconomy@gov.mt for further information. Submissions should be sent in by December 2.