Environment Minister Leo Brincat yesterday criticised the former Nationalist administration for having dragged its feet over sustainable development, taking 20 months to start implementing a law approved by Parliament in 2012.

Opening a general discussion on the Annual Report on Sustainable Development for 2013, Mr Brincat said it outlined the state of affairs in a sector that had been in limbo for many years.

The Sustainable Development Act had been pending since 2007, when a Commissioner for Sustainable Development was supposed to have been appointed. The nominee was Professor David Attard and the Labour Opposition at the time would not have had a problem with this appointment. But the nomination kept being postponed.

This meant that no attempt had been made to bring stakeholders on board

He pointed out that in 2011, former Development Minister Mario de Marco had told him that he was going to appoint Michael Zammit Cutajar but since the election was imminent he wanted there to be continuity. The Opposition had within two minutes confirmed he would not be changed.

There were a lot of plans for a high-powered team led by this commissioner together with the allocation of a business plan but none of this ever materialised.

What was more of concern were the decisions being taken at the time. Mr Brincat said that he even had information that in July 2010 there had been a specific request to water down the Act. In 2012, when the election was on the horizon, the commission was finally appointed.

This meant, he said, that on being elected, the Labour government found that no one had been briefed or even knew about this law while the focal points in the ministry had not even been appointed. The government was now attempting to address the shortfalls in this sector because it did not wish this legislation to die a natural death.

The national commission had tried its best to implement culture change but its efforts had not been appreciated. Mr Brincat said he was astonished that there were university academics working in the field who did not even know about the existence of this law. This meant that no attempt had been made to bring stakeholders on board.

He recalled how hard the late President Emeritus Guido Demarco had worked for the UNICED to accept the concept of guardians of future generations, but unfortunately his efforts at the time were blocked.

Mr Brincat said he looked at the present generation with optimism and described how impressed he had been by young people who had asked him about green jobs. He saw a ray of hope for the future when he met 40 students from a government primary school who posed their own questions about the environment without being prompted.

He stressed that Malta could not afford a fragmentation in this sector as it did not have the luxury of duplicating jobs because of limited resources. While he considered himself business-friendly, he was not a cowboy when it came to development, and on their part, businesses did not need to fear speaking about sustainable development.

The Malta Business Bureau had taken the right approach in this regard as it had made sustainable development part of its decision-making. It should be implemented from the boardroom to the production line, as this would give any business better governance and make it more competitive. A quiet revolution was required in the mentality to remove the inherent prejudices against this issue, Mr Brincat said. The Act itself was not very clear in various aspects. Legal advice the government had been given, including from the Attorney General, said it was too vague and open to interpretation. However the challenge was not to get entangled in legalities, committees and structures but to look at capacity-building in this sector.

Concluding, he said, the government intended to involve local councils, academics, schools, trade unions, NGOs, civil society and the public who were directly affected by sustainable development.

Opposition MPs Charlò Bonnici, Robert Arrigo and Ryan Callus, as well as government whip Carmelo Abela also spoke during the debate.

The House also approved the first reading of the Reduction, Prevention and Control of Noise Bill and the first reading of the Action on Climate Bill.

Chairman removed for oil-hedging suggestions

The former chairman of Enemalta’s Fuel Procurement Advisory Committee, Joe Falzon yesterday told the House Public Accounts Committee that he was removed from the position after his committee made a series of recommendations on oil hedging in 2005.

The recommendations were not taken on board.

The committee yesterday resumed its discussion of the Auditor General’s Analysis of the Effectiveness of the Enemalta Corporation’s Fuel Procurement.

Prof. Falzon said that the then chairman of Enemalta Corporation, Alex Tranter, who also headed the Risk Management Committee, used to buy some $500 million worth of oil every year. Prof. Falzon said Mr Tranter used to hedge the same amount of oil and an additional $500 million on currency for five years without asking for quotations and without keeping minutes of the meetings.

Nobody knew who the counterparts were.