Government must lead by example on green procurement – minister

Finance Minister Edward Scicluna said the Government has "planned to turn a lot of existing buildings into social housing, but it cannot use funds that the EU has for building them, as they have already been previously built without any respect towards energy efficiency".

Scicluna was addressing attendees of a conference organised in tandem by the Institute for Research and Improvement in Social Sciences (IRISS) and the ambitiously acronymned GReen procurement And Smart city suPport (GRASP) Consortium.

The GRASP project, part-financed by the European Union, is intended to promote the use of renewable energy and improve energy efficiency. 

“For 27 years the race for economic growth was carried out without respect for the environment, then in 1972 Stockholm conference. 20 years later, the world realised that nobody can stop development,” Scicluna said, explaining that the 1992 Rio summit changed the world’s environmental philosophy to one of  ”sustainable development”.

He also said that the EU has been one of the regional blocs that rose to the challenge of tackling climate change at source, issuing a number of directives paving the way for a “decarbonised economy”.

“The question is always, is there a better way?” Scicluna asked, pointing out that people were more environmentally concerned and acting on these concerns by purchasing solar panels and separating household waste at source.

“Government should lead like a responsible citizen by making the best choices. Unfortunately we are a bit late here. For example the Government has planned to turn a lot of existing buildings into social housing. It cannot use funds that the EU has for building them, as they have already been previously built without any respect towards energy efficiency. Government buildings have been built without any respect for passive energy efficiency, but this government has enormous capital".

“This Green Procurement system will hopefully usher in a new market system - it is likely that we will see the EU adopting an E-procurement system. Malta already has an E-Procurement system in place,” Scicluna said.