Last week, the world commemorated five years since the signing of the historic Paris climate accord – a legally binding international treaty on climate change, the goal of which is to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels.

In 2015, Climate Action Tracker, a group of scientists who scrutinize emission pledges and translate them into temperature projections, said the world was on path to 3.6 degrees Celsius (6.5 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming since pre-industrial times — far beyond the Paris goals for limiting global temperature rise.

Now the group says the world is currently heading to 2.9 degrees of warming (5.2 Fahrenheit) — but if the 127 nations pledging to go to net-zero carbon emissions actually do it, warming would only be 2.1 degrees (3.8 degrees Fahrenheit). That's just shy of one of the Paris goals.

Indeed, many nations have made a myriad of pledges, and they continue to do so.  The UK for instance on Saturday pledged to stop funding overseas fossil fuel projects.

However, the most significant pledge has been the EU pledge to reduce carbon emissions, with a 2030 target of a 55% cut in emissions agreed this week.

The fight against global warming is especially significant for Malta, not least because of the country’s geographical identity as an island and hence vulnerability to rising sea levels. 

A study carried out in 2017 showed how even a conservative estimate to how much global temperatures will increase will result in the sea levels rising to a point where a number of low-lying areas around the country such as Msida, Gzira, Ta’ Xbiex, Marsa, and Marsascala will be flooded.

Malta has placed its own target of becoming carbon neutral by the year 2050.

While a fully finalised plan to reach carbon neutrality by this date has not been published yet, there has been movement in this regard, not least through infrastructural projects such as the Grand Harbour Clean Air Project, which is a shore-to-ship power project focused on cutting out toxic emissions from cruise liners.

However, there is still the need for more significant change.  More focus must be given to renewable energy sources: the fact that Malta had to pay Estonia €2 million earlier this year in order to secure renewable energy credits so that the country could reach its EU target of 10% in renewable energy share is not exactly a feather which one can keep in one’s cap.

There is also the not-so-small matter of vehicle pollution which is yet to be handled effectively. Hundreds of millions have been pledged towards infrastructural improvements, many of which are starting to come to fruition – but there has been frequent criticism that these improvements do not keep in mind the needs of those who use alternative (and pollution-free) means of transport such as bicycles.

The investment in new infrastructure in order to reduce traffic does indeed reduce pollution; but that will only last so long if a concerted effort is not made to reduce the number of cars which are registered on our roads in the first place.

The reality today may be one afflicted by Covid-19, but make no mistake – the effects of climate change in the long run could be far more devastating if nothing is done.