Friends of the Earth (Malta) called on world leaders to take urgent action to cut emissions of greenhouse gases after the planet’s leading scientific experts, endorsed by the world’s governments, delivered the starkest warning yet on the threat of global climate change.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), published its long anticipated Fourth Assessment Report in Paris providing the most credible and convincing evidence so far of the human link to climate change and its devastating impacts.

The alarm bells are ringing. The world must wake up to the threat posed by climate change, the organisation said in a statement. There is still time to act, but urgent action is required. World governments have signed up to and accepted these findings, making the reason for action all the more compelling.

In Malta, the greenhouse gases emissions have constantly been rising from year to year. Although our small nation’s contribution might be considered insignificant when compared to other nations, it does not mean that we should not be concerned with climate change.

In fact, considering that Malta is a small island we should be at the forefront of combating climate change.

One has to consider the unjust situation where the biggest contributors to climate change are rich industrialized countries, while the countries that are already feeling the brunt are either developing countries or small island states similar to Malta.

Malta could potentially serve as an example of good practice when it comes to finding solutions and using technologies which could rid us from our oil dependency. This would not only be of benefit to our environment but also to our economy in the long term.