Announcing a raft of environmental initiatives to be included in the Nationalist Party’s electoral manifesto, Prime Minister and PN leader Lawrence Gonzi yesterday promised that a full reform of the operations of the Malta Environment and Planning Authority would be undertaken and placed under his direct responsibility as prime minister.

Speaking from the top of the Maghtab dump yesterday morning, against a backdrop of blue sea and freshly planted trees on the site’s slopes, Dr Gonzi unveiled the main points of the PN’s environmental package to be included in the party’s manifesto, which, he said, would be published within the coming days.

In addition to the Mepa reform, among the measures announced yesterday were the government’s ongoing bids to set up an offshore wind farm, new incentives for photovoltaic systems, initiatives to increase the use of environmentally-friendly products – including the free distribution of energy-saving light bulbs – and a change in the vehicle registration system to a polluter pays principle.

By 2013, Dr Gonzi said, e300 million of Malta’s e855 million in EU funding for the 2007-2013 period would have gone toward environmental initiatives.

“Maghtab,” Dr Gonzi remarked yesterday morning, “is a symbol of the country’s environmental transition, as well as its determination to address the environmental challenges being faced by a small country such as ours.”

Five years ago, he said, Malta had been faced with a seemingly insurmountable challenge in the form of Mount Maghtab. But now five years later trees are growing and the landfill is well on its way to becoming a national park.

Some e8 million in EU funds had already been spent rehabilitating, capping and extracting gas for energy from the site, while another e30 million would be put towards the creation of a national park.

“Over the last years,” Dr Gonzi observed, “the government has initiated the largest number of environmental projects in the country’s history.

“Although we have set out on a record number of projects over the last four years, this is not enough.”

Following the economic stimulus package announced at last week’s inception of the electoral campaign, this week the PN is to divert its focus to its environmental initiatives, which, Dr Gonzi said, are to remain top of the government’s agenda for the coming five years if the PN is elected again to office.

“Just as we have addressed the country’s economic deficit with such great success, we will now turn to addressing the country’s environmental deficit,” Dr Gonzi said. “But we have only been able to do so because the economy is now on a sound footing. That was obviously the first step and we are now in a position to dedicate more resources to the environment.

“If the people give me a mandate for another five years as prime minister, we will do for the environment what we have done for the economy,” Dr Gonzi pledged.

Malta’s public institutions, he said, need to be strengthened to cope with the environmental challenges facing the country – and perhaps none more so than Mepa.

He added that while reforms have already been undertaken at the authority and as a result has become more open and organised in the way in which permits are awarded, much more needs to be done.

As such, Dr Gonzi said, a complete and crucial reform of MEPA will be undertaken by a future PN government. The reform process, he said, would be placed under the direct responsibility of the prime minister, adding that the decision in no way detracted from the good work undertaken by Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino over recent years.

The move, he said, would be undertaken in the prime minister’s capacity as president of the National Commission for Sustainable Development.

He added, “As I did in this legislature by taking the finance ministry under my portfolio bringing public finances on a solid footing, I would do the same in terms of reforming Mepa.”

Through the reform, he said, Mepa would become more efficient and accountable, irregular practices would be stamped out and the inconsistency of decisions taken by the authority would also be remedied.

Mepa’s enforcement actions, meanwhile, would also be strengthened so that “people would no longer be able to do whatever they wanted”.

Among the two biggest environmental challenges facing the country is achieving a balance between quality of life, the environment and development – key to the country’s quality of life given its high population density.

Climate change, meanwhile, also needs to be addressed with urgency with the joint prospects of rising sea levels and temperatures. In a country the size of Malta, Dr Gonzi said, every bit of land area is precious and could not afford to surrender any to rising sea levels.

Rising temperatures in the Mediterranean, meanwhile, hold the potential to doom the tourism and agricultural sectors – both of which must continue to flourish.

Climate change also affects the international prices of cereals and oil, and since Malta imports both commodities, it is particularly susceptible to their price fluctuations – as has been demonstrated over the last few years. As such, Dr Gonzi stressed, Malta’s dependence on imported fossil fuels needs to be reduced.

“By working together,” Dr Gonzi stressed, “we can make the radical choices necessary to confront these threats.”

Over and above plans for connecting Malta to the European electricity grid, Dr Gonzi said, Malta was also projecting a substantial investment in a deep water offshore wind farm. The farm, he said, would generate some 75 megawatts of clean electricity – equal to 20 per cent of the combined output of the Marsa and Delimara power stations.

Discussions, Dr Gonzi said, are currently at an advanced stage with a Scottish company that has implemented new deep water technologies in the area, as well as with the Scottish government, to this end.

The current scheme through which households and companies with solar energy photovoltaic systems sell excess electricity generated back to the national grid is also to be increased substantially so as to make such systems more attractive and to provide a quicker return on investments.

Malta’s vehicle registration system, Dr Gonzi said, would also be changed from the current price-based system to the polluter pays principle that would see owners of new cars with higher emission levels being given a higher registration tax.

Also contemplated are further incentives for purchasing environmentally-friendly products. Along these lines, Dr Gonzi announced that one of the PN’s electoral pledges would involve the distribution of five energy-saving light bulbs per year for each household for two years. The measure, he said, would save households e100 per year – amounting to total electricity savings of e200 over the scheme’s duration.

The PN’s proposals would also see Gozo becoming an ‘eco-island’ – a model for sustainable development and environmental protection through the creation of alternative energies, waste management schemes, air and water pollution controls and a thrust toward the further cultivation of organic farming practices.