We need an alternative Vision 2050, a green vision which values and protects our natural heritage. This is required because an economy which functions without any respect of the ecology causes considerable damage which we can do without This was stated by spokespersons for ADPD-The Green Party at a press conference in which they explained the party's first reactions to Vision 2050 just published by Government for public consultation earlier this week.

Carmel Cacopardo, Deputy Chairperson, stated that Vision 2050 is a glorified development plan, a new way of presenting an economic plan. It is a blurred vision which ignores matters of a fundamental nature. Climate change is not given central importance , notwithstanding that this is the reality whose impacts we witness day in day out. 

The strategic pillars proposed are four, added Cacopardo. A fifth one, of fundamental importance, is missing: the ecological pillar. Economic activity should be  carried out in full respect of the ecology.  Otherwise it ends up creating one natural disaster after the other as we are currently facing.

Cacopardo further explained that as a result, currently, the water table is practically depleted, biodiversity severely threatened, agricultural land is being continuously developed, and the climate is undergoing rapid change. Yet Vision 2050, as proposed by theGovernment, practically ignores the consideration of these matters of fundamental importance.

It is positive that Vision 2050 emphasises that using the Gross National Product (GDP), on its own, is not an adequate measure of progress. This initiative may, over time, serve to sensitise the political actors as to what really needs to be done in order to better everyone's quality of life.

In the meantime, however, Vision 2050 fails to identify the protection of the ecology as one of the strategic pillars motivating our activity.   The public sector must be at the forefront in ensuring that this is done. Protecting what is left of our natural heritage and restoring the damage caused by previous generations and further amplified by the present ones is for us a priority in an alternative Vision 2050, concluded Cacopardo.

Sandra Gauci, ADPD-The Green Party Chairperson, stated that the ecological pillar, which is missing from the Vision 2050 published by the government for public consultation, should be linked with a sensible sustainable development policy having a long-term view. This signifies that the planning required does not only consider immediate impacts but also factors in the impacts on future generations.

However, in view of the fact that future generations do not vote today, the policy proposals put forward by Vision 2050 ignores them. The politics of sustainable development, applied properly, would avoid this as it would ensure that before decisions are taken it is ensured that these same decisions are such that they would not impede future generations from taking their own decisions.

It is indeed unfortunate that instead of working to ensure that future generations are free to make their own decisions, our political class are instead burdening them with an accumulated national deficit of 11 billion Euro (and still counting), and this in addition to inheriting a dilapidated natural capital. Vision 2050 should not ignore these basic facts.

Instead of all this we propose an alternative vision, a green vision founded on the basic fact that man is an integral part of the natural world. This signifies that all our actions must be aligned with and in harmony with what is left of the natural world. We need to not just protect and care for what is left of the natural world but we must also seek to restore all that has been damaged not just done by previous generations but also the extensive damage in the recent past.

This is the vision that we put forward, concluded Sandra Gauci.  It is the only way in which we can ensure that future generations have to deal with a substantially improved Malta, much better than that bequeathed to us by previous generations.