Why do we have to wait for summits and tsunamis?

It is a pity that there seems to be a general feeling that we often have to wait for summits – be they global or regional – and cataclysmic events like tsunamis and hurricanes to bring climate change related issues to the fore.

Sometimes I am nothing but shocked and amazed when I come across people with an otherwise sound academic and professional background who dare pop the question as to whether I really believe ‘all this airy fairy stuff’? Almost as if climate issues are something that I coined up or else that the government itself put to the fore as a diversionary issue.

In a year of various celebrations and anniversaries we would be shortsighted to fail to acknowledge Malta’s historic step forward when the very first initiative about climate change was taken by our country at UN level by the Nationalist government.

This is a landmark event that we had celebrated during a sober but dignified event hosted by the former President of the Republic at San Anton earlier this year.

But now is the time to look ahead.

The EU will soon have to finalise it 2030 energy and climate package.

Beyond this week’s UN Ban Ki-moon summit in New York it is an issue that will be on the agenda of the EU Council the same way that it will be discussed at COP level in Lima Peru in December.

What interests me most is not just the summitry, although this should serve to raise the level of international awareness on the subject, but what goes on and happens in between. In terms of momentum and state of play of ongoing developments.

If we miss this opportunity we will definitely be on the wrong side of history as well as on the losing side of it.

Climate action should not be perceived as a threat but as an opportunity that one should address.

This is the spirit that has spurred us to finalise work on the draft legislation on climate action that the government should be discussing shortly before a consultation process is launched.

Our point of departure, especially when faced by so many climate sceptics, is to acknowledge that climate change is a fact and that time is running out.

Within the same breath we must recognise another fact that is often denied – that climate change is mainly man made.

It is encouraging to see world leaders like Barack Obama talk of it as one of our major threats, of the Chinese Premier to commit himself to declare war against pollution and fight it with the same determination with which they battled poverty, and the Indian Premier to state that with each passing month, year and decade the ecological debt of future generations is mounting higher and higher.

While Malta is working hard at an inter ministerial level on its response to the EU Climate and Energy package proposals, it is equally encouraging to see that a number of countries – both developed and developing – are formulating clear cut strategies as to the benefits of climate action as well as what needs to be done. Not only to ensure that the Paris 2015 summit will succeed but even more so that tangible results will be delivered beyond that would-be landmark date.

This cannot be perceived or seen as a stop go stop event or chain of events but rather as an ongoing process that needs to be well sustained and at the same time kept under constant check, scrutiny and review with sharp monitoring to match the platitudes with whatever may be really happening on the ground.

I touched upon these points in a rather telegraphic manner during a recent address to the Parliament for Youths a few days ago in what must have been the last sitting in the so-called ‘old’ House of Representatives until we migrate next month to the new Piano building.

What I find most encouraging is that addressing climate action issues goes far beyond purely environmental concerns.

It is a common sense approach and at the same time something that also makes sense for the economy.

Particularly because it becomes increasingly clear that it is all about changing the way we produce and use energy.

With the barriers to taking action having been lowered due to the lower and falling prices of alternatives such as solar power this leaves us facing the key and major obstacle ahead.

The extent of the political will to move ahead.

While all countries have their own challenges and responsibilities to address I am finding it very reassuring that partly because of growing awareness of the impacts, there is increasing political will among the big emitters to tackle climate change.

This can be gauged from their domestic action – even if we always tend to rightly aspire for a faster and quicker pace – as well as their approach to the international negotiations.

While I reiterate that we must start thinking as of now about the post-Paris 2015 scenario, at the same time we need to bring vital momentum to a deal in Paris next year.

Paris might not be the end of our journey but if Paris morphs into a nightmare situation as the Copenhagen summit of the past had done then we will be all jeopardising and reducing the prospects of a safer, healthier and more prosperous future.

Locally, regionally and globally.