The first national communication of Malta to the United Nations framework convention on climate change

Abstract

Global climate change is one of the major threats facing humanity in the 21st century. The Government of Malta brought this issue to the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly in 1988. As a result, the international community has taken the first steps towards fashioning a collective strategy to respond to this threat, starting with the 1992 United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The first basic commitment of all Parties to the Convention is to share information and experience through the presentation of national communications. In fulfilment of this commitment, Malta presents its first national communication to its partners in the UNFCCC. In respect of global climate change, as of other global trends, this small island community is destined to undergo external influences over which it has no control. This has been our fate over millennia. Through this experience we have developed the skills of survival and adaptation. From the process of preparing this report, there emerged a picture of a new challenge to these innate skills: the challenge of strengthening our resilience to adverse climatic impacts, notably threats to the fragile water supply on which our lives and our livelihoods depend. At the same time, the report illustrates a range of win-win opportunities through which, by decreasing the carbon intensity of economic activity, Malta can make its modest but symbolic contribution – commensurate with its capabilities and its responsibilities – to modifying long-term global emission trends. This communication was presented to and endorsed by the Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister, on 15 March 2004. Formal responsibility for its preparation was vested in the Malta Environment and Planning Authority. Its driving force was located in the Department of Physics of the University of Malta, where the process was led by Dr. Charles V. Sammut (Project Manager) and Dr. Alfred Micallef (National Expert). Preparing the report involved consultations with different actors and stakeholders. Its by-products included a wider awareness of the phenomenon of climate change and its relevance to Malta, as well as the beginnings of a national capacity to collect and manage climate-related data and other information. The Government of Malta thanks all those who have contributed to the report and to these outcomes. The Government of Malta also thanks the Global Environment Facility and the United Nations Development Programme for enabling the preparation of this first communication. It is pleased to signal that facilities for the preparation of its second communication are already in place and looks forward to presenting that to the UNFCCC in due time. This communication is presented on the eve of Malta’s accession to the European Union, a step that will transform its political future. Malta looks forward to working with its partners in the Union to develop a national climate policy that will reflect its new status and benefit from their experience and support. It also looks forward to cooperating with them and other partners in advancing the collective international strategy in the directions indicated by the Convention and its 1997 Kyoto Protocol.