Local organisations are criticising the “inaction, irresponsibility and inconsistency” in the government’s approach to climate change.

Precious time has been wasted by past and present policy-makers while repeatedly missing targets on greenhouse gas emissions, renewable energy production, and waste management, the organisations said. “This is now costing us our quality of life, and will increasingly continue to do so for future generations in Malta.”

The recently published Sixth Assessment Report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) paints a damning outlook on the world as a result of decades of inaction in the face of human-induced climate change. “The report projects intense desertification and increased fire risk in the Mediterranean by 2050 unless we keep global warming below 2°C, a legal commitment governments made in The Paris Agreement in 2015 but are failing to keep. This summer is presenting a foretaste of these projections.”

Back in 2019, the Maltese parliament declared a climate emergency, “but to no tangible end.”

The organisations said that ministers occupy themselves with cosmetic projects and PR stunts while missing previously set targets by a mile.

“On 12th August, Minister Farrugia even declared down-negotiating Malta’s target emission reduction from 36% by 2030 to 19%. This not only betrays a stark lack of ambition, but demonstrates an under-appreciation of the urgency of the situation. Rather than tackling ultimate causes, the Government launches expensive projects of questionable intentions and doubtful results. High maintenance ‘carbon neutral’ gimmicks, whose carbon costs of production and upkeep are not factored in, take the place of serious environment conservation and restoration.”

The Government keeps pushing an approach based on unsustainable economic growth instead of a fair distribution of wealth in a ‘post-growth’ world, at great environmental and social costs, the organisations added.

“This is the approach that led us to a climate catastrophe in the first place and presents a vicious cycle. Using our air, land and sea resources to bolster the profits of big business is leading to widening inequalities and severe social hardships that are bound to worsen due to climate change.”

The organisations said that the government “is simultaneously allowing the activities most damaging to the local climate and biodiversity to continue and flourish unhindered; cementing private car dependency, promoting over-construction which accentuates the urban heat island effect and uses unsustainable materials (cement production accounts for 27% of global CO2 emissions), authorising rampant soil sealing by private and public ventures, not seriously addressing water scarcity and food security issues due to worsen, jeopardising the natural terrestrial and marine environments which could act as a carbon sink, and making no real commitment to halt biodiversity loss.”

There is no plan to address the inevitable sea level rise, which would drown coastal infrastructure, shorelines, and result in the final destruction of our mean sea level water table in the lifetime of children alive today, the organisations said. “Water security plans are still amorphous, and the farming community is being actively crushed by bad policy decisions as food security concerns mount.”

“While Malta’s role in global emissions may be insignificant, it is no excuse to avoid launching serious mitigation and adaptation measures that ensure some quality of life for current and future generations living on the Maltese Islands. Climate policy should be at the core of every decision being made for the future of our country, as it addresses systemic concerns that have led to this dire situation. The current greenwashing and a business as usual attitude points to poor governance unwilling to recognise the challenges ahead. We assert that we are holding past and current decision makers personally responsible for the tangible deterioration of our livelihood and natural heritage by their inaction.”

The statement was endorsed by: ACT Malta, Attard Residents Environmental Network (AREN), BirdLife Malta, Din l-Art Ħelwa, Extinction Rebellion Malta, Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar, Friends of the Earth Malta, MaYA Foundation, Moviment Graffitti, Nature Trust Malta, ORCA Malta, Rota, The Archaeological Society Malta, The Biological Conservation Research Foundation, BICREF, The 'Grow 10 Trees' Project, The Ramblers’ Association of Malta.