Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1462497
B oth the Labour Party and the Na- tionalist Party have been heavily promoting voter savvy promises during this electoral campaign. e in- cumbent is gingerly issuing free cheques to all and sundry, including pensioners, on the eve of the election under the pre- text that these serve as tax cuts and a way to make up for the COLA supplement not being enough to combat inflation. An independent candidate challenged this as an abuse and posted a compliant to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe's electoral ob- servers. Dr Arnold Cassola claims that the distribution of the two transfer pay- ments during the week prior to election date is an unabashed disbursement. All workers and students living in Malta will be receiving a €100 cheque, pensioners and people on social bene- fits will receive another €200 cheque in a letter signed personally by Prime Min- ister and Finance Minister. In all, these freebies amount to about €70 million and will go to push the country debt close to 60% of GDP. While such acts can be challenged as vote-buying schemes yet the country has been weaned on various tranches of free Covid vouchers issued during the two year pandemic. Economists have criticised the issue of vouchers targeted to a variety of recipients (such as tour- ists, students attending English speak- ing schools, divers etc). ey achieved an artificial demand booster. Prime minister Robert Abela said the initiative is intended to generate eco- nomic activity in the very same way the payment of past Covid 19 vouchers boosted the economy. Other electoral promises include a flurry of un-costed schemes promising digital jobs, im- proving the environment and ushering a plethora of extended welfare benefits. All this is salutary and one hopes that the elected party will have the strength and conviction to follow judiciously all promises in their manifest. Yet, having made such much gargan- tuan effort to please the electorate, little emphasis was placed to address the cli- mate change. One may be excused to question how a tiny rock in the Central Mediterranean, can realistically make any recognizable effort to fight global climate change? e answer is given by the Green Party. ey warned that strategies are ur- gently needed to mitigate the impact on health, agriculture and other sectors. Addressing the press, ADPD Chairper- son Carmel Cacopardo, said the politi- cal discourse on climate change has so far concentrated on reducing carbon emissions. In the meantime, the climate was al- ready changing and it would take time for adaptation measures to have an im- pact, provided they were implemented. He stressed on the need for Water Ser- vices Corporation to properly harvest rainwater instead of dumping it into the sea, directly or through the pub- lic sewers. It goes without saying that Malta needs to address coastal protec- tion, even in view of the fact that most of our tourism infrastructure lies along the coast. In view of warmer temperatures, this would also result in a heightened ex- posure to disease, putting additional strains on our health services. Such casualties cannot be blinkered by issu- ing cash vouchers to the electorate. It is not a panacea for the impending storm. e Meteorological Office said that only half the average amount of rain was recorded this season. e causes do not exclude human-induced factors. One can generalize that a common cause for high emission of greenhouse gases re- sults through human processes such as burning of fossil fuels. ere exists an undeniable fact point- ing to the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations and other greenhouse gases, such as methane and nitrous ox- ide caused by daily activities - mainly due to the explosion in car ownership, more travel by sea and air, not to forget emissions from heavy industry. e shocking Kremlin invasion of Ukraine in February has prompted an outraged European Union to sharply re- duce its dependency on Russian gas and guide members to expand clean energy to compensate. Italy has taken the bull by the horns and commissioned Renex- ia to install a vast floating wind farm off the island of Sicily. Why is Malta dithering? Reading the electoral manifesto of both major par- ties there is scant mention about the need for a similar investment offshore. Little mention was made about the pressing need to convert Electrogas - a controversial generating plant, now run on fossil fuel to convert to green hydro- gen, or the slow crawl to electric cars. Again, only lip service has been paid to install thousands of charging towers along the island. Why did none of the political leaders point to the poten- tial of exploiting our recently declared Economic Exclusivity Zone to use it to harvest energy on floating sea PV pan- els and/or wind turbines. Lacking is the vision to produce green hydrogen using electrolysis based on ample clean en- ergy produced on platforms floated in Hurds' bank - currently being used free of charge by various foreign fuel tankers as an oil bunkering facility. One wonders, if the exploratory talks started by the Finance minister with his counterparts in Qatar will ever succeed to convince the latter to invest in our vi- sionary hydrogen project. Such meas- ures are still pie in the sky but voters and pensioners are smiling this month having received signed letters enclosing two cheques…pennies from heaven. Back to the issue of climate change, certainly, concentrations of carbon di- oxide in the Mediterranean have in- creased along with the atmospheric dis- tortion which is giving us colder winters and higher humidity in summers. All lines of evidence make it unambigu- ous that the increase in carbon dioxide concentrations is human induced and is predominantly a result of fossil fuel burning (aka Electrogas and aircraft). In conclusion, can we pray for a mir- acle preferably similar to the one in the Bible recalling how it was impossible for Joshua's army to attack the massive- ly fortified walls of Jericho yet he suc- ceeded to penetrate the city's gates with the help of troops shouting and loud blowing of their horns. e possible we do now, miracles can only be bought by vouchers. Election 2022: missing hegemonic efforts to combat climate change George Mangion George Mangion is a senior partner at PKF, an audit and consultancy firm, and has over 25 years' experience in accounting, taxation, financial and consultancy services. His efforts have made PKF instrumental in establishing many companies in Malta and established PKF as a leading professional financial service provider on the Island 8 OPINION 24.3.2022