Lip-service on climate is just a waste of time

As Prime Minister Robert Abela extolled the need to commit ourselves as a world community to combat climate change at the United Nations in New York, here in Malta a report commissioned by the hoteliers lobby MHRA was outlining the dire consequences of a projected 4.7 million tourists a year on our local economy and our environment.

Both MHRA boss Tony Zahra and tourism minister Clayton Bartolo seemed unable to respond to the red flags in this study – which basically showed the danger we are facing with the notion of encouraging and embracing unabated growth.

One suggestion during the debate was for a better cleaning effort. It sounded like most of the audience did not quite understand how significant the findings of the study were.

What surprised me most is that Robert Abela’s climate change scriptwriter appeared disturbingly detached from the state of the economic drive in Malta at this very moment, and the economic policy of this and that of previous administrations.

The keyword to this government’s vision has been to do fuck all when it comes to the consequences of unfettered economic growth by allowing a free-for-all. No limits, no capping, just do as you will – no considerations for the world of tomorrow.

When Maltese hotel owners were allowed to build more hotels and more floors over their hotels early in the Muscat administration (and before that in the Gonzi and Fenech Adami administrations), nobody ever took a minute to consider the consequences of this unsustainable carbon footprint and the strain it would have on our infrastructure.

Forget the planet... hardly anybody questioned what this would mean for the whole of Malta and Gozo. So while our leaders flock to international conferences to give courageous lip-service to the climate crisis and the environment, back home these words are certainly not being backed by actions.

You cannot confront the climate crisis if your playbook back home is positivist economic growth, where cheap labour is drafted to fulfil the demands of industries, leaving wages unable to keep up with the country’s rising property prices, while the island’s health and utility infrastructure is unable to cope with this population growth, but the property industry gets the green light to keep piling up on the construction madness.

And while road construction reaches its apex, how can leaders speak about the climate crisis when there are no positive policies in favour of alternative modes of transport, except for the lethargic move to stop diesel and petrol cars. Why is this radical change not reflected in other sectors of Maltese life?

Doubling the number of tourists in Malta will only mean an immense and unsustainable pressure on our infrastructure, more residential construction, more traffic, more energy consumption and greater pressure on sewage, waste incineration and recycling plants.

And don’t forget the social effects of the rise in foreign workers to Malta without either a clear pathway to citizenship and pension rights, on an island with serious limitations of space.

Add to that the environmental effects from road transport, aviation and emissions. Abela’s scriptwriter must have been some amateur playwright, perhaps detached from science and politics and living in cuckoo land. After all, which decisions by this government have contributed to a reduction of this economy’s carbon footprint? Indeed, the ocean between words and deeds here is looking like a tsunami.

After all, this administration has shown nothing but constant grovelling to the likes of developers like Sandro Chetcuti and Michael Stivala, as well as its deference to Joseph Portelli and his ilk. Taking large chunks of pristine land, or extending concrete floors on top of each other, is no positive contribution.

Construction has turned into an unstoppable cancer attacking all aspects of Malta’s future. And there is nothing in government policy that will shake Maltese society into taking action on climate change – even the slow introduction of electric cars with a government grant has yet to attract those who are not as financially better off to afford the prices for these vehicles.

We owe it to our children to save this country – but we have to stop the preaching and respond with forceful acts of change. No annual clean-up will save the planet, except for radical policies that change our behaviour and consumption patterns.

But surely enough, unless we recalibrate our thirst for unstoppable economic growth, the climate crisis will not be mitigated. Scrap the speechwriter and bring in the experts, Robert.