(Adds ministry's reaction)

Nothing has been heard about a report on climate change which had to be concluded by March, the Labour Party’s spokesman for the environment said.

In a statement, Leo Brincat said that Resources Minister George Pullicino set up a committee to see how the country could adapt to climate change in August but although this committee had to conclude its work by March, a report had not been published and no one knew if it was concluded.

The Labour Party believed the country needed a strategy of how to adapt to climate change in several sectors, from health, to flooding, agriculture, tourism and biodiversity.

One hoped that this work would not be prolonged any further as had happened to the report on the mitigation of climate change and that this would be debated in Parliament soon after the summer recess.

But what was important was not to conclude a similar report but to have a benchmarking mechanism for the agreed measures and for their implementation to be monitored.

MINISTRY'S REACTION

In a statement, the Resources Ministry said that the technical report of the committee set up to draw up a strategy for the adoption of climate change measures was nearing conclusion.

The ministry said one had to understand that such a technical document, drawn up by technical people from different sectors in a voluntary manner, could take somewhat longer than expected to be concluded.

This was not done capriciously but because the committee deeply studied the various subjects. The ministry thanked all those working to draw up this strategy.

It said that, once finalised, the document would be available for public consultation. The government had already said it would be moving the document for debate in Parliament following public consultation and it expected the opposition to come up with its own proposals.

Environmental challenges, it said, were overcome by concrete initiatives and not by political statements.

The ministry said that one would have expected Mr Brincat to speak about the concrete action taken by the government this week with the announcement of the favourable feed-in-tariff, which was welcomed by stakeholders, as well as the opening of a new scheme to promote photovoltaic panels.