Malta needs an alternative Vision 2050: A green progressive vision

The ink on Labour’s Vision 2050 had barely dried and out came the Nationalist Party supporting the document. Anyone with even a basic awareness of policy and politics should not have been surprised. The ideological underpinnings of Vision 2050 are neoliberal and ‘productivist’, based on trickle-down economics and the myth of limitless growth, an ideology which the PL and PN share.

It is patently obvious that Vision 2050 is a re-hash of old and failed economic policy. Failed when it comes to quality of life and real and tangible sustainability. There are obviously some who have made hay, and lots of it. The truth is that Vision 2050 is based on an economic vision that does not respect the basis for our quality of life—our environment. It does not respect neither the generations of today, nor those of tomorrow. It ignores fundamental issues including climate change, the use of scarce resources such as water, energy sources, and land.

It is true that Vision 2050 introduces to government policy the idea that the economic ruler of GDP alone is not sufficient to measure economic and social wellbeing. However, the targets set out in the vision are largely aimed at raising the Gross Domestic Product and ignore, or only pay lip service to, wellbeing and quality of life. It surely does not embrace an ecological worldview.

Vision 2050 focuses on financial services, aviation, gaming and high-end manufacturing without mentioning how these sectors will reach the zero-carbon target; how they will move away from short-term targets that harm society and the environment, and which sectors are incompatible with climate targets. It continues to encourage growth in tourist numbers, and suggests that it will encourage reclamation of land to further increase land speculation, and increase pressure on the country’s infrastructure and resources. It pushes the myth that limitless consumption is possible. Waste and pollution are assumed to vanish into thin air—captured in the plan to shift obnoxious activity to some ‘reclaimed land’. Out of sight, out of mind!

Incredibly, Vision 2050 specifically mentions theme parks as something desirable. The ‘fake’ is valued over real and tangible community and open space. Vision 2050 does not look at reducing the use of resources, both local and imported resources. Nor does it look at reforms in taxation to favour companies fulfilling social, ecological, democratic and economic criteria that promote social and environmental well-being. Pollution and impacts on people and the environment from the economy are still seen as externalities.

A green and progressive Vision 2050 is based on the principles of well-being and quality of life, and on social and ecological justice. An economy that delivers equity for the generations of today and tomorrow. Efficiency and sufficiency should be pillars of such a vision. An economy that entices greed serves the interests of the few, increases pollution, destroys land and people’s health. The main challenge remains climate change, and with it the biodiversity crisis. Economic growth through unbridled use of resources is simply not possible.

If we look at Malta’s social indicators, people at risk of poverty and social exclusion in 2024 reached 19.7% of the population. The sectors of people most at risk of poverty are children and the elderly. We have an economy built on land speculation, on a tourism industry that is actually also land speculation, and on other sectors that rake in profits because they pay low wages. This is reflected in Eurofound statistics (2021) which showed that between 2010 and 2017 the richest 5% of the Maltese population increased their wealth from 33% to 40% of the country’s wealth. So-called ‘growth’ is being hijacked by speculators. Vision 2050 indicates little change in the economic system. It does not provide solutions for wealth to be distributed among the many, and instead continues to sustain corporate welfare for multinational companies. This means inequalities in workers’ incomes, the concentration of assets and dormant capital in the hands of the few, and harmful ‘growth’ through financial speculation.

Vision 2050 sidesteps the deep discussion that we need about the pillars on which our country should be based. We need a systems approach; an approach imposed on us by nature itself. We need to discuss a reform in the financial and taxation system to break the cycle of short-termism and quick profits at all costs and instead encourage long-term investment. We need to embed social and environmental priorities in the processes of economic and financial decisions. We need to ensure that essential sectors such as energy, water, agriculture and transport, all dependent on services provided by nature, are managed on ecological principles to reduce negative impacts on the climate, the natural environment and our wellbeing. We need to embed circularity in the use of resources, with clear targets, incentives and disincentives for our country to reach zero-pollution and zero-waste. The road is not easy, but we have no other choice.

We want to see an emphasis on a variety of small and medium-sized businesses, cooperatives, and forms of economic activity that enhance the common good. An economy that increases labour participation in leadership and rewards long-term investments above financial market speculation. We need to identify which economic areas are unsustainable and prepare and plan for the phasing out of these sectors. We must stop subsidising sectors harmful to the environment and tax the exaggerated accumulation of wealth and encourage social and green investment instead.

Land reclamation for speculation and dirty industries, theme parks and an additional million tourists is not visionary at all. It is the same old politics of ‘something for everyone’, and the spineless reluctance of the powers that be to say enough is enough.