There is no quick-fix solution to reducing air pollution, according to the director of the Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, who called for a long-term vision with cross-party endorsement.

The environmental impact of air pollution cost the country €14 million in 2012, according to a recent report produced by the department and funded by the European Commission. The study also shows that the loss of productivity alone cost the country €118 million in the same year. Traffic accidents meant €84 million was spent in disability benefits, and the expense related to noise amounted to €11 million.

In total, the external costs related to transport were €274 million in one year. These costs are set to rise by 2020 if nothing is done to address the situation (see tables).

“These are costs being borne by the economy because we don’t apply the ‘polluter pays’ principle. And there is a cost for not doing anything about it,” said Maria Attard.

Yet there was no quick-fix solution: “It is a mix of solutions that needs to be implemented. We need the right political decisions to be taken in the long term.”

Prof. Attard was one of the co-authors of the report, entitled ‘The external costs of passenger and commercial vehicles use in Malta’. The team, based at the university’s Institute for Climate Change and Sustainable Development, worked on the report following an analysis of the European Commission whereby peak hour congestion was observed to be a major problem in Malta, compared to the EU average.

The results show an ongoing deterioration in the congestion situation in Malta. Since the early 1990s, Malta has started showing signs of high levels of motorisation and car dependence that increased to the point where drivers spend 52 hours in gridlock every year, according to the report. This dependence was coupled with changes to social and demographic factors, a lack of integration between land use and transport planning, lack of investment in the public bus service, continued provision of road infrastructure and a relative dearth of policies aimed at changing behaviour.

Since 2006, subsequent governments have implemented a number of measures to tackle car dependence, including park-and-ride schemes, pedestrianisation and road pricing. This policy direction, however, has been challenged over the years with the lack of support from land-use planning agencies, enforcement and other stakeholders that influence the overall volume of congestion on Malta’s roads. Prof. Attard stressed that increasing roads would not solve the problem. “Increasing capacity results in an increase in cars. We need to move away from the idea of supply to traffic demand management,” she said.

A report by the World Health Organisation published last week said air pollution in the country resulted in the death of about 230 people each year and cost the Maltese economy €550 million.

Policy actions

• Increasing the efficiency and use of public transport through, for example, further use of park-and-ride schemes; use and deployment of non-road modes; more efficient use of the road network through intelligent transport services, market-based instruments including time differentiated congestion charging or removal of infrastructural bottlenecks; and stimulating use and making the road network more suitable for soft modes (walking and cycling).

• Reducing and making the car fleet more sustainable through, for example, electric mobility and car-sharing schemes.

• Optimising work and school hours and reducing education-related car trips.

External costs of transport for 2012 (€m)

Future external costs of transport (€m) in a ‘no policy change’ scenario