The mean temperature in Malta over the past 30 years was higher than the climatic norm of 18.6 degrees Celsius, the NSO said.

The theme chosen by the United Nations for this year’s World Environment Day is “Small Island Developing States and Climate Change”. Though Malta is not classi?ed as a developing state, the effects of climate change are still likely to generate considerable environmental impacts on ecosystems, society and the economy in general.

Scienti?c evidence indicates that the increase in heat-trapping greenhouse gases from human activities is causing signi?cant climatic changes worldwide. From 1990 to 2012, Malta’s net emissions of greenhouse gases increased by 57.7 per cent. Throughout this time series, the energy sector contributed 91.2 per cent of total greenhouse gas emissions in Malta.

The bulk of emissions in this sector originate from energy industries, which comprise the Marsa and Delimara power stations. From 1990 to 2012, emissions from the power stations constituted 66.7 per cent of emissions from all sectors presented in Table 1. Emissions from transport sources comprise the second largest source and amount to 18.6 per cent of national total emissions.

Data relating to the effects of climate change on Malta are presented in Tables 3 and 4. The mean temperature for 2004-2013 (19.3C) was 0.8 degrees Celsius higher than the mean temperature recorded during 1974-1983 (18.5C). From 1985 onwards, all years had a mean temperature which was higher than the climatic norm for Malta. Such data are further corroborated by Chart 4, showing an upward trend in the number of days when the maximum temperature exceeded the climatic norm.

Rainfall data presented in Table 4 differ from the trend shown by temperature. The total rainfall during 1974-2013 averaged 557.0 millimetres, slightly higher than the climatic norm of 553.4 millimetres. While rainfall intensity has varied from one year to another it has, on average, increased slightly. During 2004-2013, both rainfall intensity and variability of total rainfall from the climatic norm were the lowest in the past four decades.