Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1484063
maltatoday | SUNDAY • 13 NOVEMBER 2022 16 COMMERCIAL #ClimateOn – Are you ready to activate change? CLIMATE Change is hitting our world faster as we speak. News about the current chang- es in the planet's climate are transforming the world. Over the last two decades we have experienced 18 of the warmest years on record, and extreme weather events, such as forest fires, heatwaves and f loods, are becoming more frequent both in Europe and elsewhere. How- ever this news is not new any- more and it seems that individ- uals have gotten accustomed to hearing about such news on social media, television and other media mediums. So the question which arises next would be: What is being done to fight Climate Change? For one the EU has set up the 2050 targets and is aiming to fight climate change through ambi- tious policies to meet its green- house gas emissions reduction target to further cut emissions. Looking more closely at the local scene, in response to the climate change crisis, the Min- istry for the Environment, En- ergy and Enterprise (MEEE) has launched the second edi- tion of a Nation-wide public awareness campaign to con- tinue promoting climate ac- tion amongst the key industry stakeholders and the general public at large. The #Climate- On – Activate Change Cam- paign aims at changing the general public's habits towards a more innovative way of life while highlighting the benefits of a low-carbon society. During last year the first ev- er National Conference was organised to gain momentum on climate action amongst stakeholders. The campaign continued on this year with the second edition through closed discussions addressing Sus- tainable Mobility, Sustainable Finance and Sustainable Ener- gy use – three contributing fac- tors to Climate Change. The seminar on Mobility dis- cussed at length the contribu- tion of road transport as a ma- jor source of greenhouse gas emissions in Malta and hence why there is a need to change the way we move – literally from point A to point B. The discussion at this seminar iden- tified the lack of knowledge and risk of misinformation that may prejudice the sustainable mobility shift. Clearly, there is the need for more education and awareness and to encour- age further the modal shift, be it through opting to use more public transport, carpooling or even biking for our daily commute. Every citizen needs to understand that a change in behavior towards the mod- al shift is fundamental to re- duce greenhouse gas emissions from road transport. During the discussions, stakeholders even mentioned the need for a more efficient public transport system. In addition, attention should also be given on other options of public transport as well as improving on walkabil- ity and cycling around our is- lands. Moving on to Energy efficien- cy - the spotlight was shed on buildings in particular. This is mainly due to the fact that En- ergy use in buildings is another major contributor towards Cli- mate Change. Energy efficiency – or more so sustainable ener- gy use is basically utilising less energy consumption in build- ings required to perform the same operation as those build- ings utilising more energy inef- ficiently. Various stakeholders made reference to Malta's en- ergy vision focusing on energy efficiency, direct electrification and the need for more depend- ency on clean sources of energy such as Renewable Energy Sys- tems. This would only be possi- ble if standards and regulations are imposed. . Similar to the other seminars, stakeholders agreed upon the importance of educational and awareness building programmes. Howev- er, as with anything – balance is important and there needs to be an equal weight between enforcement and education. Adding on to this, discussions also led towards the impor- tance of creating a centralized point of contact for the public as opposed to having multiple entities/regulators all manag- ing similar sectors individu- ally. The element of support through schemes for the gen- eral public and businesses alike also emerged, and although such support is beneficial, ul- timately it is up to each and every individual to make the little changes in their everyday life. The third sector comes into force – Finance. Without fi- nance all of the above sugges- tions would be futile. During the sustainable finance stake- holder dialogue seminar dis- cussions implied that there are inactive funds which could be potentially invested direct- ly towards green projects and sustainable companies. Addi- tionally, there is also the need to stimulate demand for green products and services across sectors ranging from green construction to green loans as this will instigate investment. This would in turn lead to- wards the activation of Change that Malta truly needs in the fight against Climate Change. By being at the driving-seat of national climate action, Malta will continue to provide the re- quired platform to all relevant stakeholders and provide the necessary empowerment to tackle challenges arising from climate change, whilst finding solutions which will ultimately determine and impact the fu- ture and truly activate change!