[WATCH] José Herrera justifies colleagues' aggressive reaction to Opposition's climate change motion

Environment minister José Herrera justified the government’s visceral reaction to Nationalist MP Jason Azzopardi’s ‘climate change’ motion, attributing the response to different political styles.

Azzopardi tabled a motion in Parliament on Thursday, proposing the setting up of a parliamentary committee responsible for overseeing action on climate change and which would have the power to nominate a superintendent for the climate change emergency.

Government MPs, including Labour whip Byron Camilleri and EU affairs minister Edward Zammit Lewis tore into the motion and had a fierce rejoinder to Azzopardi’s “flawed” propositions.

The aggressive reaction took many by surprise given that the subject matter was climate change, something the government is also committed to addressing. 

“With all due respect to my colleagues in Opposition, their behaviour in the last years wasn’t exactly cordial but was rather confrontational. If you go ahead with confrontational politics persistently and if you criticise the person and not the subject persistently, if you use social media to place individuals in a tight corner and you criticise them incessantly and capriciously, you are contributing to an affront,” Herrera told MaltaToday on Friday after a press conference on Budget environmental measures at Ta’ Qali.

Despite this censure of the PN’s politics, Herrera said that he himself had declared that his PN counterpart’s motion was a positive one despite some inaccuracies.

Azzopardi expressed the Opposition’s wish to set up a committee which the government claimed was identical to the already existing climate action board, with the government having had appointed Professor Simone Borg as climate change ambassador in 2015.

“With all due respect to my friend and colleague Jason Azzopardi, his methodology as a parliamentarian translates into that reaction. You get what you ask for,” Herrera said, adding that Azzopardi’s motion left room for criticism since it clearly indicated that Azzopardi and the PN were not aware that a climate change emergency had already been directly declared in 2015.

Zammit Lewis and Camilleri seemed to have attributed more than just carelessness to Azzopardi’s motion as they accused him on Thursday of telling scientists on the climate action board that he knows more than they do.

“We are agreeing with Jason and there’s nothing wrong with reaffirming our position. What disappoints me is that they will vote against our amendments even though they are saying what we’re saying. I don’t think they should have any qualms with Professor Borg,” Herrera said.

He said that despite Azzopardi’s motion being riddled with errors, including confusing clean air with climate change, the very fact that the motion was tabled was a positive thing.