Political parties have to be prepared to lose votes to protect the environment, the Nationalist Party's General Convention heard yesterday.

Speaking during a panel discussion on the environment, University lecturer and opinion writer Antoine Vella said the main political parties would have to drop out of “the race for votes” to develop and really stick with environmental policies.

“We as a country cannot continue to see parties as a group we approach with a wish list. And parties have to be prepared to say no to certain requests, even if it means losing votes,” Mr Vella said.

The PN's 2016 convention, entitled Idea Ambjent, will stretch through to tomorrow and focuses on developing the party's vision for the environment.

The panel discussion included MaltaToday assistant editor Jurgen Balzan who urged the PN to make clear commitments on the environment.

He said the party should say where it stood on the Mepa demerger, on the future of development boundaries and other key issues such as the Strategic Plan for the Environment and Planning.

“The real test for a party comes when it is in government – when it has to make good on the commitments it made in Opposition,” he said.

The Malta Independent on Sunday editor David Lindsay raised concerns that, if action was not taken to change the way governments treated the environment, the island would find itself in the same situation in the decades to come.

In a closing statement, Mr Balzan said the “sins of the past” should not stop parties from changing their position for the better on the environment.

However, personnel who had been responsible for poor decisions in the past needed to be changed.

Architect Simone Vella Lenicker, who is chairing the convention, asked the gathering to be open to new solutions and new policies on the environment.