The kinds of changes necessary to combat the menace of climate change are not easily achieved. It is all well and good to say the world’s economies need to commit to reductions in greenhouse gases, but that comes at an enormous price – not only to governments but, mainly, to the polluting industries that will be tasked at the end of the day with undertaking the required green investments.
It is a matter of competition, and of economic survival. Given the recent recession and the restructuring of the global economy, no one country, or in the EU’s case, one economic bloc, could possibly be expected to go it alone – a global consensus is needed but, as with all consensuses it will be a very hard-fought battle.
Perhaps in the view of world leaders, action on climate change can wait but the survival of individual economies is a much more immediate concern. Such was the underlying tone witnessed at Copenhagen last December and, although this editorialist was not present in Cancun, it can be easily inferred that was the tone present there as well.
From a Maltese point of view, there is a lot to be concerned about as regards the future of our children, grandchildren and beyond. Malta stands a lot to lose if the predictions being made are realised, with small islands being particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.
Malta in particular faces a number of daunting challenges in terms of rising sea levels, escalating temperatures, drought, extreme weather events such as heavy flooding and storm surges and flooding and coastal erosion over the coming decades.
Warmer temperatures will lead to a somewhat longer spring and summer tourism season, which will give Malta something of a short-term benefit. But if the mercury continues to rise over the years, as is being forecast, the spring and summer heat in Malta is expected to become simply unbearable.
Southern Europe as a whole faces multiple threats in the coming decades should global warming fail to be addressed and be stopped dead in its tracks. Such threats include ever-rising temperatures leading to drought, a significantly reduced availability of fresh water, plummeting summer tourism numbers, growing health risks related to heat waves, the threat of the spread of dengue fever to Malta as habitats change along with climates. Higher temperatures are also expected to bring about an increased invasion of non-native species – wreaking havoc on local ecosystems and biodiversity.
Although Malta’s physical contribution to climate change would, on a global scale, be small, it must do its part. The government was recently presented with some 80 proposals by a group of experts on local measures with respect to climate change adaptation and mitigation and it is understood the proposals are now being studied in detail.
We augur better successes at Durban as negotiations continue in South Africa next year, instead of the piecemeal victories being claimed.
A most successful end of year at The Independent
In this final editorial of the year, since we will not be publishing, as per the Maltese media tradition, next Sunday since it happens to be Boxing Day, we must remark on the successful year that we here at Standard Publications have had – thanks also in large part to you, our readers.
Our editorial team has successfully continued to push the envelope across all our publications. We feel we have done just that in the last year, and much, much more of the same will be delivered in the coming year.
Beyond any doubt, the cherry on this year’s cake has been the groundbreaking revamp of our sister daily newspaper. That was in October and although only two months down the road, we feel the new look Independent has been with us for years now.
The new, large format, full colour daily newspaper – both firsts for Malta – has already left an indelible mark on the country’s newsstands and media landscape. The printing crisp and sharp, the design is fresh and the editorial content been given a breath of fresh air. The newspaper is also environmentally friendly, printed as it is on recycled paper with water based inks.
Through no small effort on the part of our editorial and design teams, we feel we have succeeded in considerably upping the ante on the Maltese newspaper market, and rest assured we will be raising that bar further still next year.
Readers, thank you for your support and for your continued support next year.
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all our readers from all of us at Standard Publications.