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Matthew Vella
It is midday at the conference launching the third draft of Malta’s sustainable development strategy. Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino says that if the strategy document being discussed by stakeholders at the Mediterranean Conference Centre is approved by Cabinet, “government will be morally bound to implement it.”
But the report is onerous in its demands – from curbing the damage from the impact of the construction industry to promoting a sustainable economic development – sustainability represents a major challenge for an island with its own idiosyncratic realities, ranging from the economic to the social structures which buttress its development.
Malta is still an economy with a heavy dependence on exports for job creation, and right now it faces an increased need to be more productive and competitive. Coupled with its fragile ecosystem, the strategy already envisages that environmental and social considerations will pose heightened challenges to economic activity.
Even before yesterday’s conference, the press is reporting how the construction industry generates just 5 per cent to the gross domestic product. It represents one of the greatest pressures on the limited Maltese land. But minister George Pullicino claims a curb on construction has already occurred: “It has already occurred when one considers that in 1990, parliament limited the zones of development. I think that was one of the courageous decisions, certainly not a popular one, to have been taken at the time.”
Pullicino acknowledges the industry, which is an income generator for small investors among others, is one in which “everyone tends to think they are in the right. In the PN general council, the general complaint was that MEPA was a national institution that was obstructing development. If MEPA had to accept all the applications from Gozo from people asking that their land is included in the development zone, we would end up developing some 15 other Marsalforn-type villages.”
The strategy report recommends the creation of deadlines on finishing buildings, ending hoarding, and more regulations on waste created by the industry. “A number of regulations have been drafted for a better management of construction sites,” Pullicino says.
“They have already started being discussed at Cabinet level and there will be a public consultation process on the matter. Today the principal impact of construction is hitting people living around these sites. For the first time since the last war, the amount of redeveloped properties exceed those for new developments – 60 per cent of permits issued by MEPA are for redevelopment, meaning properties have to be pulled down and rebuilt. Such an impact is obviously felt directly by those people who live next to the construction site.
“We know we cannot keep on with this state of affairs, but we need a gradual shift. One of the common mistakes of this country is to go to extremes. We need to go for a gradual shift, keep priority zones and introduce curtailments on the industry. I wish to see an element of self-regulation even from building developers, not just coming from government.”
But aren’t building contractors too much of a unique species to actually include self-regulation in their list of virtues? “The contractor is a person with a strong role in the national economy of Malta: construction in Malta has a stronger impact because investment tends to be more significant here than in other countries. It is a reality we have to face. In this country anyone with a spare penny normally invests them in property.”
In fact, Pullicino says we could talk at length over ideals and targets. What will be difficult will be their translation into a plan of action to implement them. Who will, for example, forgo the extra car in a society which has reached the 2.5 vehicle per family mark? Pullicino agrees that the definition of ‘quality of life’ is today not one that is shared by everyone; telling the Maltese that the consumption party is over is difficult to pitch after decades of political programmes lauding the virtuous consumption of the Maltese.
“But it doesn’t mean that economic growth cannot be achieved through sustainable development. Economic growth can be value-added without increasing the consumption of resources, and that is the greatest challenge we have. That is the principle paradigm. The UK has managed to achieve a decreasing dependence of energy consumption while economic growth has increased. We haven’t yet managed to make this decoupling: on the other hand our energy consumption is even higher than our economic growth, and this is what we have to address. We can have economic growth that decreases consumption, and that is our greatest challenge for the years to come.”
In fact, the sustainable development strategy does not stop only at the environment. It takes intensive stakeholder participation. “As a citizen I think we need greater political maturity. We cannot remain in a situation where we acknowledge a number of problems but still we don’t sit down on a table together to find solutions. A case in point is pensions, or the rent laws: the Opposition has no position to offer if we had to get round a table to discuss the matter. And this goes on to different environmental issues. Take the Armier boathouses. The Opposition’s proposal was to keep them. Can we discuss these issues without putting votes into the equation?
“We need greater maturity that will enable us to get together and address these issues, without any political competitor attempting to get political mileage out of these issues. We are a small country, certainly with its unique defects, but with the advantage that we should be able to address certain issues better.”
In his intervention, Harry Vassallo, the chairperson of the Green Party, makes his point that the root causes of the island’s environmental problems lies in the electoral system of a society which remains mired in patron-client relations which have governed the dispensing of building permits. Vassallo says the challenge is proper land use, and overcoming a “pathological situation” of a very small knot of very wealthy individuals who have made their fortunes and now dominate the political class.
Vassallo says before embarking on the specifics, the country must have a Freedom of Information Act and a Whistleblower Act but also a fair electoral system. In his afternoon speech, George Pullicino appears not to take kindly to the latter point: “I cannot not comment on the point made for the need of a political system with more than two parties. Our electoral system is a democratic one, dictated by the people through their free vote. Certainly, we don’t have in mind to impose upon people for them to vote for a third party.”
But it is not only tension between an ideal of sustainable development and Malta’s own social realities that underpins the ensuing challenge. Making sense of economic development, in a sustainable manner will require a gargantuan effort. Pullicino goes as far as quoting from a Chinese communist party document on the need to balance both poles: “I have to quote from this document which recognises the importance of sustainable economic growth as well as social equality and environmental protection.”
Maybe that’s what the Chinese central committee like to think about their economic powerhouse, but few people in the poverty-stricken rural hinterland will appreciate that vision. Maybe looking at Malta requires a more radical overhaul.
Matthew Quinn, director of the Welsh Assembly Government’s strategic policy unit, says radical change lies at the heart of sustainable development. He expresses his surprise that in such a small country, he would expect a greater awareness of the need for sustainability.
“I think it has to be a radical change because we can’t sustain the current levels of lifestyle with the degrees of waste we produce. If we want to sustain the current quality of life and the current affluence we have we have to do it much more efficiently. I think the difference is that some people think we should change just a little bit and then we’d be fine, but the difference we have to make in some areas has to be quite significant, such as energy.”
Such a radicalisation of efficiency can turn out to be difficult to communicate to a public which for years has been encouraged to consume with impunity. Quinn points out how it is only after environmental catastrophes that groups start understanding the impact of their economic growth on their surroundings. But even though more people want the trappings of their affluence, they can equally become aware of the impacts of their consumption.
“The dialogue going on in the EU on the relationship between the Lisbon competitiveness agenda the Gothenburg strategy for sustainable development is that the latter is a marathon while the former is a sprint. Of course if you keep on sprinting in a marathon you usually don’t finish the race. So I think there is a real risk if we don’t look into the nature of ‘competitiveness’ and ‘economic growth’ and where we want to go in terms of economic development. I think it could end up being a short sprint and that means we don’t finish the race.”
mvella@mediatoday.com.mt
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