ADPD says government’s Vision 2050 is ‘blurred’, calls for a green alternative

ADPD–The Green Party has criticised the government’s newly launched Vision 2050 document as a development-centric strategy that fails to place environmental sustainability at its core.

The party called for an alternative "green vision" that prioritises the protection and restoration of Malta’s natural heritage, warning that current policies are ignoring the long-term consequences for future generations.

Speaking during a press conference on Friday, ADPD Deputy Chairperson Carmel Cacopardo described the government’s Vision 2050 as “a glorified development plan” that presents an economic strategy while sidestepping urgent ecological concerns.

“It is a blurred vision which ignores matters of a fundamental nature,” he said. “Climate change is not given central importance , notwithstanding that this is the reality whose impacts we witness day in day out.”

The government’s document, launched for public consultation earlier this week, outlines four strategic pillars—but, according to ADPD, it omits a crucial fifth: the ecological pillar.

Cacopardo pointed to the deteriorating state of Malta’s environment—citing depleted water tables, biodiversity loss, shrinking agricultural land, and a rapidly changing climate—as evidence of the need for a more ecologically grounded national strategy.

While he welcomed the government’s move to acknowledge that GDP alone is not an adequate measure of progress, Cacopardo warned that this will mean little if not backed by policies that protect the environment and support long-term sustainability.

Sandra Gauci, ADPD chairperson, said Vision 2050 neglects the interests of future generations—largely because they do not vote.

“The politics of sustainable development, applied properly, would avoid this as it would ensure that before decisions are taken it is ensured that these same decisions are such that they would not impede future generations from taking their own decisions,” Gauci said.

She criticised what she called the government's short-termism, highlighting Malta’s growing national debt and environmental degradation as legacies being passed down.

“It is indeed unfortunate that instead of working to ensure that future generations are free to make their own decisions, our political class are instead burdening them with an accumulated national deficit of €11 billion, and this in addition to inheriting a dilapidated natural capital. Vision 2050 should not ignore these basic facts.”

ADPD is proposing an alternative Vision 2050—a green vision based on the principle that humans are part of the natural world, not separate from it.

“It is the only way in which we can ensure that future generations have to deal with a substantially improved Malta, much better than that bequeathed to us by previous generations.”