International law professor David J. Attard can truly be described as a visionary who put Malta on the world map in 1988, when the Government of Malta took up a proposal of his and requested the United Nations to take action to protect the global climate. His proposal led to the 1992 UN Convention on the Protection of Global Climate. Prof. Attard spoke to Francesca Vella about the climate change phenomenon and what led him to come up with the proposal some 20 years ago

As Prof. Attard went back in time to recount the story of his climate change proposal, he recalled that he had written a letter to The Times of London in 1988.

He had written that the first phase of a strategy to protect the global climate was to have a UN resolution declaring the weather and climate to be part of the common heritage of mankind, and that the appropriate mechanism be established to protect these natural resources in the interests of mankind.

In his letter, Prof. Attard had referred to a front-page article that had appeared in the newspaper a week before, titled Soggy summers may be with Britain for good.

The article had considered the phenomenon of a steadily rising average annual rainfall in the upper latitudes of the northern hemisphere and the very high temperatures in the southerly latitudes from the Mediterranean across northern India.

Interestingly, as Prof. Attard pointed out, on the same day, The Times of Malta reported that the local meteorological office had registered the hottest average July temperatures (3.3 degrees Celsius higher than the mean) since records started being kept.

“After the letter was published in The Times of London, I was asked to meet then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami. But I was not the only one with a proposal that was to be considered to be put forward to the UN.

“I was there, at Auberge de Castille, with my climate change proposal, but there was someone else with his own proposal.”

Prof. Attard stopped short of saying what the other person’s proposal was all about, but the situation of global climate change today may have been very different had the Maltese government not opted for the international law professor’s proposal.

Even if Malta is a small country, there is nothing stopping it from bringing up things that matter in the international community, as Prof. Attard did 20 years ago.

Similar to Prof. Attard’s achievement was Arvid Pardo’s, who had proposed, in 1967, to the UN General Assembly that the seabed should constitute part of the “common heritage of mankind”, a phrase that appears in Article 136 of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea.

It was Prof. Pardo who initiated the 15-year process that culminated in 1982, when the convention was opened for signatures.

Prof. Attard explained that he was struck by the scientific work that had been carried out on climate change by 1987. There was evidence on anthropogenic (caused by humans) climate change, but international law was incapable of dealing with ecological threats to the planet.

The international law lecturer said that the role of international law is to regulate international life and protect humankind, not only against armed conflict and aggression, but also against growing environmental threats.

In a lecture he delivered at the premises of the Foundation for International Studies in November 1988, Prof. Attard referred to the Common Heritage of Mankind doctrine.

This doctrine had been incorporated in two major international agreements: the 1979 Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and other Celestial Bodies, which declares the moon and its natural resources to be the common heritage of mankind; and the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, which declares certain areas of the oceans and their resources to be the common heritage of mankind.

Prof. Attard had said that the Common Heritage doctrine was applied to areas and resources found outside the national jurisdiction of States.

“The greenhouse effect caused by fossil fuel burning happened ‘in the flicker of an eye’ compared to the millions of years that it took nature to create the environment we live in.”

The trapping of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere flourished during the post-war period of industrialisation. In the 30s and 40s, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were hailed as revolutionary gases for low-cost cooling for the masses, said Prof. Attard.

“They were considered as a remarkable invention, but now we know that man-made CFCs are the main cause of depletion of stratospheric ozone, which protects us from the evil rays of the sun.”

Prof. Attard had pointed out, in his 1988 lecture, that the effects of this global warming on human life would be traumatic, if not catastrophic.

“Perhaps an effect of climate change, which would concern Malta most directly as an island state, is the expected increase in sea levels.

“The 1985 Conference estimated that a global warming of 1.5 to 4.5 degrees Celsius would produce a thermal expansion of the oceans leading to a rise in sea level of between 20 and 140 centimetres.

“It is a phenomenon which threatens the very existence of states… the disasters which Bangladesh has faced – with over 700 killed in 1987 and 20 million made homeless – may be a reflection of the catastrophes which certain States face. We may soon see the era of ‘ecological refugees’,” Prof. Attard had told his audience.

And this was way back in 1988. The catastrophes recorded in the 20 years that followed speak for themselves.

The 1988 climate change proposal to the UN was one of the highlights of Prof. Attard’s successful international career, but it was certainly not the end.

After the proposal was made and accepted by the UN, Mostafa Tolba, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), appointed Prof. Attard as his senior legal advisor.

Prof. Attard’s proposal also had the full support of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), whose secretary-general, Godwin Olu Patrick Obasi referred to the discussions on the draft resolution that was being held in the UN General Assembly, and noted that “at the last count, more than 70 countries had called for appropriate responses…” with respect to climate change.

“I had the full support of then Foreign Minister Vincent Tabone, UN representative Alexander Borg Olivier, most Maltese diplomats and even Crispin Tickell, credited with the ‘greening’ of Margaret Thatcher,” said Prof. Attard.

As he recalled the first meetings of the multi-disciplinary Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change (IPCC), the Maltese lecturer showed me the award he received as a sign of recognition for his valuable contribution to the work of IPCC, which was jointly awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize together with Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr.

“The first preparatory meeting of the IPCC was held in the room that is said to have been Napoleon’s bedroom at Palazzo Parisio (which houses the Foreign Affairs Ministry) in Valletta.

“We worked fast and in 12 months, doubts over the climate change convention were dispelled. Canada wanted a convention to protect all the atmosphere, but Dr Tolba and I argued that that would take too long, and the world simply had no time to waste on this matter.”

Prof. Attard recalled that when the first meeting of the IPCC was held in Washington, the committee came under attack by the coal and oil lobby.

The Kyoto Protocol (an international agreement linked to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change), which was signed in 1997, was a landmark capitalistic approach to environmental problems of a global nature, said Prof. Attard, adding, however, that governments had to go beyond the Kyoto Protocol.

He said that when Minister George Pullicino asked for his advice on solar water heaters, Prof. Attard had said he believes the consumer should be given a monetary incentive to invest in such technologies.

The international law professor had suggested that citizens be allowed to claim back VAT on solar water heaters, rather than removing duty on them.

“Efficiency is part of a win-win approach to climate change. Should the government implement a national efficiency scheme, the energy bill would be reduced by about 20 to 30 per cent,” said Prof. Attard.

He said that the prime minister’s sustainable development approach is a step in the right direction, as it is a means of seeing that the country’s very limited resources are utilised wisely.

“While the integration of various reforms is positive, given our small size, things should be happening faster. The country’s future lies in our hands. We need to ensure environmental protection that is sustainable in a bid to make sure that future generations are left with a better Malta.”

Economic development has to be sustainable, and the value of the sea and the country’s resources should be appreciated, he said, adding that efficiency is of utmost importance.

“I believe this awareness should be embedded in the consciousness of our children at an early age. I’ve written to the Education Minister Dolores Cristina, urging her to introduce the subject of sustainable development in schools, and in this sense, I think the minister has quite a responsibility in this sense.”