Looking back at 2021 | Greenwash, some tinkering and major postponements

2021 has seen several ministers busy inaugurating parks, gardens and landscaping projects. Other positive green measures included long-term commitments on climate change, a ban on single-use plastics which comes in place next year, a more comprehensive waste policy and new tax incentives aimed at the regeneration of urban centres. 

But despite the refusal of a few outrageous projects, the onslaught of over-development continues unabated as government refuses to amend the 2006 local plans and revoke development guidelines issued in 2015, while new threats like land reclamation and more yacht marinas loom on local communities like the one in Marsaskala. 

No willingness to change the rules 

2021 has seen no change in direction in land use policies. Government continues blaming local plans approved in 2006 for the onslaught on Maltese towns and villages besieged by five-storey developments and in some cases even higher developments like the 10-storey development recently approved in Naxxar. 

Yet in so doing it ignores the development guidelines approved in 2015 which worsened the situation by making it more attractive to demolish old buildings by translating height in floors found in local plans in to height in metres, in a way which allowed fitted more floors in the same height. 

To further rub salt in the wounds, instead of challenging the status quo, government claims that any change in local plans would result in compensation claims by owners, even if such claims have been refuted by a experts in European law, who spoke to MaltaToday. 

In the meantime, the ghost of permits past keeps coming back to haunt local communities, as was recently the case with a permit approved in Xlendi. Government even keeps ignoring pleas to change the designation of Ħondoq ir-Rummien as a tourism area, using the same excuse that any change would entail compensation. 

One positive development in 2021 was the stronger stance taken by the Superintendence for Cultural Heritage, which has become a bulwark against the most insensitive proposals, like the proposed demolition of Palazzino Vincenti, a modernist building in St Julian’s. 

Green spaces: the new deliverable 

While government seems wary of irking the developers’ lobby by changing the rules, it has responded to the demands of local communities for more open spaces, by constantly announcing new urban green spaces, which also come with the added benefit of pleasing constituents in these areas. 

And in a bid to ensure swift approval of these projects, they have been exempted from the need of a planning permit thanks to a legal notice published earlier in the year, creating a new class of development which does not require any planning permission. 

This fast-tracking comes at a cost, as these projects are not subject to mandatory public consultation, perpetuating the top-down approach of ministers taking decisions. Although largely beneficial to the public, their design can be as controversial as is the case with the proposed garden in Mosta. 

Even plans for the rehabilitation of the Marsa waterfront have so far focused on tourism rather than the community centre’s development. Still, on a positive note the greater investment in urban green areas is bound to benefit local communities, especially those living in deprived areas. 

Re-channelling property investment 

More strategic thinking has been shown in budget measures aimed at the rehabilitation of buildings in Urban Conservation Areas. The measures applicable to those buying properties in UCAs as well as for those buying vacant properties include the complete removal of capital gains tax and stamp duties on the first €750,000 in the price and a €15,000 grant represent a more robust and ambitious package over similar but less comprehensive measures introduced in different budgets over the past decade, which so far have yielded limited results. 

This is one aspect where government has shown a sense of long-term vision. The only loophole in all this is that these measures are also applicable to brand new developments built in a Maltese traditional style as this departs from the declared objective of rechanneling investment to rehabilitating old and abandoned properties. 

Postponing major decisions 

But despite this tinkering, local communities have remained at the mercy of mega-development projects like the DB project approved in Pembroke earlier this year, or the 10-storey development approved in Naxxar just weeks ago. And while the former was actively resisted by the local council whose mayor voted against, the latter was approved with the full support of the mayor. 

While some outrageous proposals like a hotel in Dingli cliffs have been refused by the PA board, environmentalists have to remain vigilant all the time, fully knowing that only perseverance leads to victory. 

And in 2021 environmentalists spearheaded by Moviment Graffitti, a number of local councils and lawyer Claire Bonello have scored some major victories, like the revocation by the law courts of a permit for a waterpolo pitch in Marsascala and Fortina’s decision to abandon plans to turn Balluta in to a ferry landing port. 

But with the election around the corner, government seems to have postponed major decisions on a proposed yacht marina in Marsaskala, a proposed flyover passing through agricultural land in Qormi and on land reclamation. 

The risk is that re-elected with a super-majority, the next government may be emboldened to ride rough shod on local communities during the initial years of the next administration.  

Energy dilemmas 

Even the government’s own plan to reduce carbon emissions seems based on the premise of eternal economic growth, even in the construction industry whose carbon footprint – including the carbon embedded in cement – remains ignored and unknown. 

The plan which at least gives a sense of long-term direction in terms of energy policy still foresees that Malta’s building stock will increase by 20% by 2050. For new buildings, government is still considering design criteria for efficiency standards, including a detailed feasibility study on how to balance increased upfront costs with savings, in the form of reduced bills. 

The plan suggests that such measures are most needed to mitigate an increase in emissions between 2020 and 2030 as in this period electricity will still be “supplied locally” from gas plants. 

Moreover Malta’s major reduction in carbon emissions will take place between 2030 and 2040 when emissions decrease from the current 2,300 kilotonnes of carbon, to 1,700 in 2030, and less than 500 in 2050. 

But emissions from the natural gas plants will grow from 2020 to 2030 as plant utilisation increases, a period coinciding with Electrogas’s 18-year power and gas purchase agreement.