Anyone can be an environmentalist. It is not reserved for a chosen few, like being accepted by Zeus on Mount Olympus. We can all be environmentalists. And so we should be. Neither should it be used cheaply as a fashionable buzzword during the pre-election campaign, but a belief ingrained in our way of life. It all revolves about having the utmost respect for this planet that, after all, sustains our daily lives. That is what the Brundtland Commission sought when, in its 1987 “Our Common Future” report coined the term “sustainable development”.

With well over 20 years of direct involvement in environmental activism, when it was more socially acceptable to state that you were a Ku Klux Klan member, it is understandable that the environment shall be one of my priorities as a potential MEP. Having environmental credentials entails much more than recycling your single-trip plastic containers, foreign wine glass bottles and unread junk magazines at the closest bring-in site. It includes committing yourself to speak out, despite all the negative consequences to your professional career you may have to personally endure.

I have always been perplexed how Malta, being an audible proponent for the Law of the Sea and climate change in international fora always took a blasé attitude when legislating and enforcing more environmental protection on its home turf. Our miniscule country remains one of the densest populated territories and yet, despite this demographic reality, rather than mitigating overdevelopment, our authorities have foisted on us a dreary and tired ambience, generally devoid of aesthetical architectural merit and pleasant landscaping.

One of my biggest influences is César Manrique, a conservationist and architect from Lanzarote. He had, since the early 1960s, campaigned for cautious tourist development on his Canary Island home. Today he has been proven right, albeit posthumously. A kind of villain-turned-hero for hoteliers, since his visionary endeavours began attracting visitors, who embrace the low-lying Lanzarotean resorts that offer tranquillity, peace and harmonious landscaping.

We have witnessed the most shocking development proposals that the more conscientious public would term bizarre and outrightly obscene. Lest we forget, we must remember the applications for development at Ix-Xaghra l-Hamra, Ta’ Cenc, Mistra, Ramla l-Hamra, Wied il-Buni and now Wied il-Ghasel. The list is endless. Together we must strive to attain the goal of protecting the few open spaces we have been left to cherish.

Being one of Greenpeace’s activists who protested in front of the US Embassy in Floriana in 1997 against America’s reluctance to sign the Kyoto Protocol, I hold the climate change issue close to heart. The newly elected European Parliament will be consistently debating the post-Kyoto agreement plans limiting CO² emissions in its next legislature.

The environment is an essential component that regulates our quality of life and the Maltese, irrespective of their political beliefs, should be treated with more respect. I shall ensure that European Union Directives, such as the Air Quality Directive and Renewable Energy Directive, are adhered to by the Maltese government. Even our tourism quality product values together with a clean and energy efficient landscape are at stake. To think positive one must also act so.

Let us recall last year’s public transport saga at the height of the tourist season. It was a totally unwarranted summer farce. Twenty years of Nationalist government and we still have a Third World transport service. I have written about EU co-financed programmes, such as CITIVAS, that are meant to arrest traffic abatement, decrease carbon emissions and ease mobility. Sadly, they remain untapped. Another EU-funded programme, the European Urban Knowledge Network (EUKN), which has garnered the participation of 16 EU countries, has failed to attract the attention of the Maltese government.

Malta needs to adopt the eco-management and audit scheme (EMAS), to have an integrated environmental management plan rather than a series of disjointed campaigns that leave minimal impact. A vivid example is the considerable amount of unseparated waste lying on pavements in Floriana, which I witness daily on my way to work.

Recent Eurostat statistics revealed that we scored 0 per cent in renewable energy sources and thus remain last in EU-27 in electricity generation from such sources. Cyprus scored two per cent. The EU has a binding target to have 20 per cent of its overall energy consumption coming from renewable sources by 2020. All member States are required to increase their share of renewables by 5.5 per cent from 2005 levels, with the remaining increase calculated on the basis of per capita gross domestic product.

Malta’s share is targeted at 10 per cent.

This nation is at a crossroads. This is a moment of metamorphosis in choosing what earns our trust and endorsement. The Nationalist Party cannot prevent change. We are presented with a more open, demanding and judicious electorate that does not tolerate arcane mediocre standards. Challenges are there to be met. Bring them on.

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Mr Borg is a Labour Party candidate in the European Parliament elections