Malta has always been on the forefront in advocating climate action.  This legacy is proudly engrained in the history of our nation, particularly this year as we celebrate our nation’s fiftieth year of independence, Prime Minister Joseph Muscat told the United Nations summit on climate change being held in New York.

When Malta alerted the International community at the 43rd session of the UN General Assembly on the need to address the warnings on human-induced climate change by the scientific community, it was because we believed, that our nation, despite its minute size, has to transform the circumstances that may work against us as the very raison d’etre for taking up new initiatives and responsibilities in the international community of States. Our resilience as a nation depends on what kind of “added-value” we can give in this new geopolitical world order of the twenty first century.

We need to transform words into action and as a member of the European Union, Malta is proud to be a part of climate action, legally committed at a multilateral, European and domestic level to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases in order to mitigate climate change.

Malta’s determination to switch to a low carbon economy is characterised by a vision, based on the long-term, socio-economic, and environmental benefits of greenhouse gas emissions reduction, he said.

Malta has had to overcome significant challenges to meet its greenhouse gas objectives within the EU, but we remain committed to forge ahead and to identify any possible opportunities that aim for further reductions.  Like other EU Member States we have experienced the decoupling of economic and emissions growth.  Since 1990 to date, our GDP has grown by 260%, yet our GHG emissions per unit GDP have decreased by 55%, Dr Muscat said.

For its part, Malta’s opportunities emerging within the Energy Sector are being fully capitalized. As the energy generation sector is by far Malta’s highest contributor to national GHG emissions, these measures are expected to domestically lead to around a 40% GHG reduction compared to 1990 levels in Malta’s energy sector carbon footprint by 2020 and beyond.

Malta’s National Energy Efficiency Action Plan and the National Renewable Energy Action Plan outline the drive to increase energy efficiency, particularly from an end-use perspective, and the promotion of renewable energy sources as the major steps that had to be taken.

Malta is also undertaking commitments in its mitigation and adaptation policies through the drafting of a Climate Action Act to ensure that legal measures for all sectors will be under pinned to set up the required institutional capacity to monitor, review and verify our reduction targets and adaptation measures, secure better climate governance and ensure the necessary forward planning. 

As an EU Member State, Malta remains committed to the efforts that the EU undertakes in its contributions to climate action to financially and technically support developing countries through the EU budget and the mobilization of the Green Climate Fund.

Malta is proud to announce that as part of its climate finance commitment, it will be offering technical support as capacity building to States most vulnerable to climate change. 

It will do so by:

-                    Offering nationals from these States, scholarships in undergraduate/postgraduate studies related to climate  action at the University of Malta; and

-                    Providing assistance and training at a policy making, vocational and institutional level.

Malta aims to outreach developing States even by providing the necessary linkages with: Our aim is to become an energy hub in the Mediterranean region; by exploiting the possibilities of renewable energy across borders and the island’s potential as a gas supply hub with a link to gas fields in North Africa to Europe, the PM added.

Another important event that Malta will host in 2015 is the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting.  The meeting in Malta will serve as another opportunity for Commonwealth colleagues to continue to discuss these global issues ahead of our next major international appointment to discuss important Climate matters.

In conclusion, given Malta’s minute size, our economies of scale, a population density that is amongst the highest in the world, as well as our peripheral geophysical position, our determination to address greenhouse gas emissions and reduce them drastically within the EU’s Joint Fulfillment objectives, have met with innumerable challenges. 

In our endeavours, however we have definitely experienced that the benefits of a low carbon economy far outweigh the negatives, Dr Muscat said.

In the end, it is ensuring the wellbeing of our people that is at stake and greenhouse gas reduction definitely marks a step in this direction.  It also consolidates our commitment, notwithstanding our small size, to address a global challenge that is a common concern of humankind.