The Labour Party would be settling for nothing short of government commitment to legislation when it discusses a Private Member's Bill on Climate Change in Parliament today.
Opposition Leader Joseph Muscat insisted it would be "drawing the red line" there, saying sweet words and committees were not enough and that the country should lead by example on the issue.
The opposition's environment spokesman, Leo Brincat, who in September had presented the 130-word Bill calling for legislation on climate change, said it had been wrongly considered a "gimmick", aimed solely at making noise in the media.
He explained he was not competent to draft legislation on climate change but the idea was to have a joint exercise between the political parties and the main NGOs, which would nominate their own experts to do the job together.
Apart from enacting a law on climate change, yearly benchmarking would be carried out with the government of the day having to give an account of where it has arrived in reaching its goals.
An environment audit of the Labour National Centre in Ħamrun, carried out by a commission set up in July, has been presented to Dr Muscat, Mr Brincat and PL chief executive officer James Piscopo yesterday. Chaired by Victor Axiak, the study offered a snapshot of the situation and recommendations on how to improve its impact on the environment, which the party plans to take on shortly.
Although the headquarters are relatively energy efficient, there was room for improvement and the aim is to establish an in-house environment management system and meet specific targets so that, within a few months, it would be able to achieve eco-management & audit scheme (Emas) certification, making it the first political party in the EU to do so.
The carbon footprint of the headquarters is calculated to stand at 750 tonnes of CO2 per year into the air, the equivalent of 120 persons, the report found. This was due mainly to energy use and could be halved if the report's recommendations were followed.
The study also went into air emissions in terms of transport, including the flights Labour MEPs took to Brussels. While these could not be avoided, carbon offsetting schemes were suggested, Prof. Axiak said.
The commission also analysed the party's electoral manifestos to see how Labour could improve its performance in terms of the environment.