Speaking on this afternoon’s episode of The Boardroom, Head of the Maltese Labour Party delegation and Vice President of the Socialist and Democrats Group, Miriam Dalli, outlined her vision for the European Green Deal, as well as how Malta can do its part to contribute.

“The green deal is our recipe to move to a new economic model. It was launched last year by the new president of the European Commission and will ultimately help us achieve carbon neutrality by 2050 across the EU –which is the EU’s aim.

“This would mean that we would need to change the way we have been doing business, and we need to change our behaviour top-down, from a policy maker, governmental, business and individual level.”

Dr Dalli stressed that all member states – Malta included – must do its part to help reach this target.

Prime Minister Robert Abela has also pledged for Malta to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Ever the pragmatist, Dr Dalli said that she does not want to hear of the EU’s goal to be carbon neutral by 2050, but rather, she wants to hear about the plan in place to get there.

“I am a firm believer of intermediate goals,” she said, adding that such periodic goals would ensure that the overall target is reached.

“If we implement measures today, we will see changes in the years to come.”

Asked by presenter and business-writer Jo Caruana about whether she feels the European Green Deal is an option, especially in light of the challenges brought about by COVID, Dr Dalli believes it is not an option, but a necessity to ensure that the livelihood of citizens continues to be protected.

“There are people who think the issue is industry vs the environment, that we need to make sure to protect our industries, but for them protecting industries means we cannot be too ambitious.

“I think the experience from the pandemic, especially from the initial months when economies closed down, we saw people and politicians saying now the European Green Deal is no longer a priority and we need to protect what we have.

“I agree – but we can protect what we have by doing things differently. By doing things differently we can create new opportunity, it is about turning challenges into opportunities.”

Dr Dalli stressed the importance of change being enacted now, so that measures can be implemented, and planning can take place to cater for the changes to be brought about by the European Green Deal.

“If we implement measures today, we will see changes in the years to come. The more we postpone things, the more this 2050 target of carbon neutrality will be delayed. We need to make sure that we have legislation in place, however it is not just about legislation, but about enforcement and incentivisation.”

She turned to private industry, saying that often, legislation requires the cooperation of private partners to be implemented successfully. This goes to show the importance of providing incentives to those private partners, she added.