Environmental challenges in Malta

Abstract

The services of ecological systems and the natural capital stocks that produce them are critical to the functioning of the Earth’s life-support system (de Groot, Wilson and Boumans, 2002). They contribute to human well-being - indeed to its very existence - and as such by their nature, represent a flow of economic value. Intrinsic functions apart, the environment also provides services which are sometimes classified as source and sink functions to the economy - the environment acts as a source of renewable and exhaustible resources, and as a sink for all emissions and waste generated by every economic and social activity (Pearce and Turner, 1990). Often by default, dependence on the environment is an implicit economic strategy: without environmental inputs, much of the economic competitiveness of countries or recorded growth would scarcely be achievable.