MEPA launches 2008 Environment Report for Malta and Gozo

The Environment Directorate within the Malta Environment and Planning Authority has just launched its latest report on the state of Malta’s environment. The Environment Report highlights the situation in a number of environmental areas including air, waters, climate change, biodiversity and policy responses to environmental issues.

The report outlines some positive trends in the state of Malta’s environment, but illustrates that more effort needs to be made in certain areas.

Results published in the report show that Malta has managed to achieve positive results in a number of key areas. For example, The Environment Report shows that an impressive 99 per cent of bathing sites around Malta and Gozo conform to the EU’s bathing water standards (as outlined in the EU Bathing Water Directive). This is a particularly positive result, considering the socio-economic importance that bathing enjoys as a popular activity amongst locals and tourists alike.

The report also takes the relationship between the economy and the environment into consideration, showing that, the overall trend since 2000 has been towards a relative decoupling of energy consumption from economic activity, indicating that Malta’s economy is becoming more energy efficient. There has also been an increase in material efficiency. Initial estimates show that Malta’s domestic material consumption – which measures the quantity of material consumed by the national economy – declined between 2004 and 2006, indicating increased efficiency in the use of materials used for economic activities. The report shows that Malta has a relatively low level of domestic material consumption per capita when compared with other EU member states such as the United Kingdom, Italy and Greece.

More encouraging trends relating to the conservation of Malta’s biodiversity are also presented in the report. Malta currently has over 40 Special Areas of Conservation (SACs); the terrestrial SACs cover over 13 per cent of Malta and Gozo’s land area, while the two marine sites cover 11 square kilometres of the Islands’ territorial waters. Furthermore, by end 2008 Malta also had 73 designated Areas of Ecological Importance and/or Sites of Scientific Importance scheduled under the Development Planning Act.

However, while the results in a number of areas are certainly encouraging, the report also highlights a number of issues that need further attention. It delves into a number of key environmental challenges in areas such as waste management, further protection of Malta’s biodiversity, water management, the control of traffic emissions, as well as the ongoing pressures on land.

In this respect, The Environment Report reveals that while Malta’s population has largely met its basic material needs, the population continues to place unsustainable demands on the environment in certain areas, putting strains on natural resources and processes.

With regards to air quality, the report states that the most significant air pollutants are particulates and ozone, the concentrations of which exceed EU standards in certain areas.

During the press conference organised to launch the report, Mr. Austin Walker, MEPA Chairman, explained that “there is a need for environmental stewardship across the board. We all need to take ownership of the environmental situation. This amongst other things translates into more effective integration and co-ordination amongst responsible entities.”

With regards to climate change, The Environment Report highlights the need to sustain efforts towards decoupling of economic activity from greenhouse gas emissions. It states that it is important to initiate both supply-side measures, such as investing in a range of cleaner and more efficient energy technologies, as well as demand management measures.

The report also highlights that there is significant potential for improving the overall efficiency of land use in the Maltese Islands, particularly given current over-supply in the residential, commercial and industrial sectors. The potential of using incentives to achieve this merits investigation.

The Report states that in order to reduce wastage and raise efficiency levels of water use, improved water demand management is required. In particular, water pricing needs to be extended to private water supplies, in order to improve demand management over the whole spectrum of water use, with the wider sustainability goals in mind. Waste generation and its management were also dealt with in detail. The Report highlights that Malta will need to continue to invest mainly in its regulatory and operational infrastructure, on the basis of new policy instruments, programmes and actions, and to allocate sufficient resources for implementation.

The Report concludes by stating that while Malta has already made significant progress in upgrading its environmental policy capacity, its institutional capacity still needs to improve in terms of human resources and funding, as well as public and private sector investments to upgrade operations and infrastructure.

Martin Seychell, Director within MEPA’s Environment Directorate, highlighted the initiatives taken over the last year to address the issues raised in the report. He mentioned developments in the waste field, which include the commencement of work on a biodegradable waste strategy.

During the past year Malta launched the preparation of a National Water Catchment Management Plan based on wide stakeholder participation, and initiated transposition and implementation of the Marine Strategy Directive, which will streamline actions on environment with that in other marine-related sectors. On the nature protection front, a National Biodiversity Strategy and Action Plan has been issued for inter-ministerial consultation, while a National Strategy for management of Natura 2000 sites has been prepared.

Addressing the issues of air pollution, Malta has concluded a national air quality plan, which contains a number of traffic-related measures; and the public transport reform should also have important environmental benefits.

Over the past year Malta also published a climate change strategy, along with the 2009 Greenhouse Gas Inventory and 2009 Report on Malta’s Policies and Measures to combat climate change. In addition, a national seminar on Health Effects of Climate Change was held in April 2009.

Work has also been concluded on a tender to prepare noise maps and related action plans, while the Authority has completed the IPPC permitting exercise relating to existing plant, and the environmental permitting of various installations on a pilot project basis. MEPA has also launched for public consultation environmental guidance in the form of General Binding Rules for micro-enterprises and SMEs. MEPA has also secured €4.9 million in Structural Funds for a project to upgrade environmental monitoring infrastructure and capacity.

The Authority has also introduced the setting up of quality management systems with regard to implementation of the environmental acquis, including greater public participation in transposition of EU Directives and greater efficiency in reporting. In his address, Parliamentary Secretary Dr. de Marco stressed that ‘the environment is a crucial contributor to the Maltese economy’. He added that it is important to understand that this activity in the environmental field is an opportunity to reap economic benefits: ETC research shows that green jobs contribute to approximately two percent of GDP and between 2.5 and 3 percent of Malta’s employment, and principally in the area of waste management. He stated that ‘if Malta can make itself more efficient and greener, this should help its economic development too.’

Dr de Marco added that that ‘through the MEPA reform government has shown that the environment is a major priority. Government, has not only changed and updated the old legislation pertaining to the environment but has also started the process of establishing a national environmental policy within the next 18 months to have a holistic framework enabling Malta to go a step further than just adopting EU directives. Government has also committed to further strengthen the Environment protection directorate within MEPA with another 45 new employees – nearly a 50 percent increase – to make it more effective and increase cooperation with the planning entity.”

The Environment Report details can be viewed and downloaded in various forms on the following link – www.mepa.org.mt/ter ^[1]