Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1475004
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 31 JULY 2022 OPINION 11 Is balance attainable? uphold woman's rights… than a private meeting with George Vella (President, no less, of the last remaining bastion of 'pro- life conservatism' on this side of the Atlantic)? And so soon, too, after she had made all those 'women's rights' promises in the first place! The press conference with Macron, if you'll remember, took place on January 19. Her meeting with George Vella, on February 10. And right until the last minute, she kept insisting that: "During my visit, I will reiterate the Eu- ropean Parliament's commit- ment to uphold the fundamental values of the European Union…" (That's right: the same 'fun- damental values' that Metsola herself now argues also include 'abortion rights'…) Ah, but what did those two Presidents actually discuss, in their private meeting last Febru- ary? Let's see now: according to our own news report, later that same evening: "President Vella and Metsola discussed several challenges currently on the Eu- ropean Union's agenda, such as post-COVID recovery, the Con- ference on the Future of Europe, immigration, climate change, as well as political developments in the EU's Southern and Eastern Neighbourhoods…" On the subject of 'female re- productive rights', however; and on her own, new-born commit- ment to ensure that all Maltese women are 'guaranteed access to safe, legal abortion'… not a single word, it seems, was ex- changed between the two Pres- idents, on any of that. Oh, and I need hardly add that Roberta Metsola also kept up this wall of silence, even against the backdrop of the Andrea Pru- dente case last June (which only highlighted just how detrimental a blanket abortion ban may be, to the health of women caught up in those situations). At which point, we are once again confronted with only a couple of options, to account for the apparent contradiction. Either Roberta Metsola really IS hoping that we'd all somehow 'forget' about those promises she made six months ago (in which case: I reckon she's got anoth- er guess coming, pretty damn soon…) Or else, it was something she did to simply – as Euronews put it – "shut down the controversy surrounding her investiture" (in which case: it doesn't exactly say very much for her own princi- ples, does it?) Or who knows? Maybe it's just that Roberta Metsola really DID intend to fulfil those promises, all along … but – in between posing for one photo-opportuni- ty, and another – she just some- how never got round to actually doing it, in the end. In which case… erm… it just takes us all the way back to the question in the headline, doesn't it? THIS week I came across Raphael Vassallo's blunt opinion piece – an unrestrained and honest jab to the three-decade long narrative of trying to find the right balance between economic growth and environmental pro- tection. It is indeed very difficult not to agree with the argument that as a nation we have his- torically failed in achieving this balance. Proper planning and enforcement has been an endemic issue across different adminis- trations since I can remember. On the oth- er hand, I disagree with him when he puts everyone in the same basket. In this sector, a policymaker's job becomes more ardu- ous with the passage of time as it is way more difficult to correct wrong decisions or omissions of predecessors. The 2006 building development zone extension is a case in point – reversing that decision without inflicting injustices on many is impossible. Beyond this howev- er, I believe that we simply cannot, and we shouldn't accept that the failures of the past end up dictating our ability to change the future. As a matter of fact, now more than ever, we simply cannot afford to abandon the idea that we can indeed create a prosperous economy which looks beyond greedy growth and truly delivers on the promise of a fairer deal for our environ- ment and for a better society. Am I an optimist? Undeniably so. Is the idea of creating a fairer economic model Utopic? Absolutely not. Through the years many have argued that environmental protection had to come at the expense of corporate advancement and vice versa. Unfortunately, this is still the predominant mindset in many of our cor- porations. Indeed, proposals for environ- mentally friendly investments are still met with an initial element of scepticism even in the private sector, as they are too often deemed as a costly necessarily evil. It is this mentality that needs to shift and ironically this is where our generational opportunity lies. We need to cultivate the idea that an honest environmental com- mitment can actually be a driver of corpo- rate earnings. This might sound utopic but can actual- ly happen the moment our business lead- ers realise the virtually untapped potential that exists by investing in quality rather than trying to keep on milking the same old way of doing things. Take construction as an example. The sector which is widely and rightly blamed as being the major culprit for Malta's en- vironmental deterioration. Yet through the years, Maltese investors, big or small kept investing their savings in property and real estate. This will probably not change but we can change the kind of development we want for our islands. Better quality, truly green development can drive the value of investment property whilst giving back to the environment. A factual example is the Bosco Verticale in Milan. A LEAD-certi- fied green development composed of two res- idential towers which houses nothing short of 20,000 trees con- verting 44,000 pounds of carbon dioxide an- nually. This kind of green construction needs to be certified so this is no panacea for green-washers. These buildings use solar and renewable energy to neutralise their car- bon footprint and ef- fectively attain energy self-sufficiency creat- ing no harm to the en- vironment. The apartments were sold at a substantial premium when compared to the going rates for conventional apartments in the Lombard capital. It is this premium-isation of green pro- jects that can drive the notion that attain- ing the balance between doing well and do- ing good is indeed attainable. The same notion can be applied to other sectors, quality tourism and greener urban areas are other examples that can deliver more sustainable commercial profits on one side and better quality of life on the other. Just like the most of us, Raphael is damn right to be livid about the current state of play. Yet we are still in time and we have practical opportunities to change this path and make it up to the generations to come. Steve Ellul is a financial analyst Steve Ellul Through the years many have argued that environmental protection had to come at the expense of corporate advancement and vice versa. Unfortunately, this is still the predominant mindset in many of our corporations