ADPD launches ‘Green Vision 2050’ in challenge to government growth model

ADPD has unveiled an alternative roadmap for Malta’s future, warning that the government’s Vision 2050 proposals risk entrenching a “growth-at-all-costs” economic model at the expense of social justice and environmental sustainability.

In its submission to the government, ADPD launched Green Vision 2050, a framework that shifts focus from limitless economic expansion to a wellbeing-driven economy. The party insists the government’s plan prioritises corporate and financial interests, portraying education, culture and social development merely as “servants of economic growth.”

ADPD General Secretary Dr Ralph Cassar criticised the government’s framework as a “business-as-usual scenario”, saying it neglects resource limits and treats land and sea as “exploitable commodities.”

He argued that Malta needs a paradigm shift. “Green Vision 2050 seeks to offer an alternative narrative, integrating social, ecological and economic imperatives. It is based on wellbeing rather than limitless growth. Green for all rather than greed for the few,” Cassar said.

The party’s alternative vision is rooted in five guiding principles: wellbeing that ensures prosperity is shared by all, justice that delivers equity within and across generations, recognition of planetary limits that safeguard and restore nature, sustainable efficiency in production and consumption, and good governance through accountable and resilient institutions.

Building on these principles, ADPD proposes four pillars to replace what it describes as the government’s growth-centred vision. These focus on moving beyond growth towards a wellbeing economy, beyond the market towards public services that enhance wellbeing, beyond individualism towards stronger communities and education, and beyond greed through environmental stewardship.

Party chairperson Sandra Gauci stressed that the transformation must extend beyond Malta to the European level, resisting corporate influence that hinders green transitions. “We need to fundamentally transform Europe’s economy, renouncing the pressure for growth and redirecting it to ecological and social aims. The government’s Vision 2050 fails to tackle these issues,” Gauci said.

She added that ADPD’s proposals include taxing resource use and extreme wealth rather than labour, penalising pollution, and directing both public and private finance toward sustainable industries that enhance quality of life.

Concluding, Gauci underlined the party’s stance in stark terms: “The choice is between an economy which serves us all, is socially just, ecologically sound and sustainable and an economy based on exploitation of people and resources, locally and abroad that implies the prosperity of some at the expense of others.”

ADPD will be rolling out further details of its Green Vision 2050 in the coming weeks through a series of articles and communications.