While we may be in the middle of a general election campaign, world issues are dominating the conversation.

Ukraine is the foremost topic on the list. Countries around the world are condemning the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, where a war rages on. Reports of civilian casualties keep coming in, and Russian troops keep advancing. The West has issued strong economic sanctions, and this includes Malta. EU’s airspace has been closed to Russian aircraft and the Russian economy has taken a hit.

Malta has supported these efforts and is sending humanitarian aid. The EU is sending arms to Ukraine. One point about Malta, however must be made. By continuing to sell citizenship to Russian nationals we are in the wrong. The Parliamentary Secretary for citizenship, Alex Muscat, refused to say whether Malta will stop selling passports to wealthy Russians, arguing that “not all Russians are bad.”

It is obvious that not all Russians are bad, but then wouldn’t removing Russia from the swift system impact all Russian citizens. Muscat’s argument is weak. Right now Malta needs to join the rest of the world in sending the strongest of signals, that an aggressive Russia will not be tolerated.

Dutch MP and the General Rapporteur to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Pieter Omtzigt said that the Maltese government has failed to get the controversy of the golden passport scheme, where citizenship is bought by Russians amongst others, right. He statement is right, the Maltese government is failing to understand the optics of the situation, among other things.

Ukraine is not the only worrying international news that broke this week.

The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report said Monday that if human-caused global warming isn’t limited to just another couple tenths of a degree, an Earth now struck regularly by deadly heat, fires, floods and drought in future decades will degrade in 127 ways, with some being “potentially irreversible.”

Climate change is happening all around us. Countries need to do more to combat this. Putin’s war on Ukraine could detract from this issue, which is another reason why the Russian leader’s actions are dangerous.

We as a country must do our part for the planet. The EU has plans in place to try and tackle the issue, but more worldwide commitment is needed.

“The cumulative scientific evidence is unequivocal: Climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health,” says the major report designed to guide world leaders in their efforts to curb climate change. Delaying cuts in heat-trapping carbon emissions and waiting on adapting to warming's impacts, it warns, “will miss a brief and rapidly closing window of opportunity to secure a liveable and sustainable future for all.”

There is no time to wait on this issue, action must be taken now.