Written by Lara Bajada Young and Andrew Alexander Caruana
How are the EU’s efforts helping the Maltese Islands become greener and more sustainable?
Sustainable development refers to different societies making use of the resources they need without taking up the resources for future generations. Through this practice, people must learn how to leave things in a better state or as they found them. This important phrase refers to three pillars; the economy, the social and the environment working together in equal harmony to lead a greener and more sustainable life.
The European Union has given a lot of importance to this through its Directives, where they aim at solving a current environmental issue to better one’s health and lifestyle. These directives are a necessity as they help protect, conserve and restore natural habitats and species. Some other topics that have been tackled within these directives include: conducting assessments on air quality in order to detect and control the various pollutants found in the atmosphere, provide a cleaner water supply, ensure proper waste management and helping businesses move towards a more sustainable approach to the economy.
The European Union also provided its member states with a great initiative known as The European Green Deal’s Investment Plan. Climate change and environmental degradation are a huge threat to the Earth and in order to overcome this challenge, The European Commission has decided that it needs a new growth strategy to transition its Union into a more resource-efficient and competitive economy. Their main aim is to transition to a climate-neutral, green economy and to diminish net emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.
This investment plan is based on investing sustainably a minimum of €1 trillion over the next 10 years. Providing new incentives to redirect their public and private funding so that The EU would provide tools to facilitate sustainable funding at the top of their list to promote green budgeting and procurement. Lastly, The EU Commission will help support public plans and projects which are designed to be more sustainable.
Why haven’t the EU’s efforts to slow down climate change not worked as effectively yet?
In 2007 the European leaders created a climate and energy package to ensure that the European Union (EU) meets its climate and energy targets by 2020. The package sets three key targets: a 20% cut in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels, renewables must account for 20% of the EU energy and the energy efficiency needs to improve by 20 percent. The package is also a headline target for smart, sustainable, and inclusive growth.
Official data from the European Environmental Agency (EEA) showed that greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions had already decreased beyond the 20% reduction target in 2014. The levels were 24% lower than they were in 1990. This prompted praise from some quarters but also criticism that the goals were not tough enough. Hans Bruyninckx, executive director of the EEA, said the shift was encouraging. However, climate campaigners argued that the Paris agreement could have been more demanding.
The success of the EU showed that the targets were not ambitious enough, particularly since some European Union countries will now overshoot their 2020 goal by at least 10%. Climate campaigners argued that the aim for a 40% cut by 2030 was far too lenient. Wendel Trio, director of Climate Action Network (CAN) Europe, said the achievement proved the EU’s “climate policies were out of touch with reality”. He added that the findings were further proof that the Paris Climate Agreement, which academics said was “inadequate”, had not been stringent enough. “The findings demonstrate that the EU could easily increase its climate target for 2030 in order to reach the goals of the Paris Agreement.
Unfortunately, the European leaders agreed that they need to raise their climate ambition above the existing target, but they did not endorse a proposal to cut greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% when compared to 1990 levels. Eastern EU countries that depend on coal for much of their energy needs were not enthusiastic about this proposal and as a result, it was not approved. The European Union will try to find a consensus in the next meeting in December since every member state needs to endorse the revised target. However, scientists have argued that unless drastic steps are taken right now that cut down greenhouse gas emissions, countries will miss both goals from the Paris Agreement (to keep the global warming increase below 2 degrees Celsius, and ideally no more than 1.5 degrees C).
The European Union must take action now. Some countries like Norway already generate 99% of their electricity from hydropower – a renewable source of energy and in Denmark on one particularly windy day the country produced 140% of its electricity needs and sold the excess off to Germany. These findings clearly show that the European Union could actually increase its 2030 targets and one can thus conclude that although the European Union is actually making advancements in slowing down climate change, its efforts could be much better.