At the beginning of this year, even before the world had to learn how to grapple with the pandemic of COVID-19, another crisis of was looming larger on the horizon – that of climate change.
Prof Simone Borg was invited as a key note speaker to give a presentation at an event to discuss Climate Action organized by the European Court of Auditors. The event was a series of initiatives taken by ECA following the launch of teh Green New Deal by the Von Der Leyen Commission. Prof Borg was also interviewed for the bumper edition of the ECA journal dedicated to climate action.
The latest edition of the ECA Journal looks at the many initiatives taken by the EU and the member countries’ respective governments to mitigate climate change, shedding light on the gaps in the process.
The packed edition features many contributions from academics and practitioners around the EU, including that by University of Malta academic, Prof. Simone Borg.
Titled ‘Climate Change Action – with the right mindset, many things are possible’, the interview with Prof. Borg focuses on what is being done to realise the 2015 Paris Agreement, which is legally binding, and being complemented with policies adopted by the individual countries.
In Malta, the case is different, argues Prof. Borg. “States are very different, Malta is a service-based economy and despite the willingness of a transition to renewable energy, we do not have enough space to generate solar or wind energy to become self-sufficient, due to our geophysical size.”
Whilst the bigger countries are having to deal with certain problems, smaller countries have others – but having either a common pathway or different pathways leading to the same objective, is not a bad idea, Prof. Borg reiterates.
A concrete step towards achieving climate change goals for the EU is by having more meaningful stakeholders’ dialogue, allowing member states to really listen to their communities’ concerns.
The ECA Journal is the European Court of Auditors’ magazine, and is published once every two months. It is one-of-a-kind in being a public audit in the EU, identifying new practices and developments in different areas covered.
The full journal may be accessed online.