News | Sunday, 01 February 2009

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Cassola, Busuttil battle it out on air quality and environment

Matthew Vella
Alternattiva Demokratika and the Nationalist Party have gone head to head on their political groups’ environmental records, with the Greens accusing the European People’s Party of having the worst voting record on green issues.
AD chairperson and MEP candidate Arnold Cassola says that PN MEPs Simon Busuttil and David Casa took the side of polluters by weakening EU targets on carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from new cars manufactured in the EU. He refers to the Davies report, which proposed an average of 120g of CO2 emitted per kilometre down from 160g, to be attained by 2010.
In 2007, MEPs from the EPP and ALDE groups voted for an average target of 125g/km, postponing the target to 2015.
Busuttil however says that he voted in favour of the entire report and in favour of emission standards reaching a higher level, “just 100g CO2/km albeit by 2020.”
“What I cannot understand is why Dr Busuttil, David Casa and their political group in the European Parliament voted against stricter limits when they had a chance to vote in favour of higher standards for the automobile industry,” AD chairperson Arnold Cassola says.
Referring to Busuttil’s Stop The Dust campaign, Cassola says the government can easily control dust from buildings and quarries through Maltese laws. “We are probably the only country that uses ‘franka’ stone, but there is no real political will to control this. On the other hand, the laws on standards of car emissions can only be regulated at European level.”
But Busuttil says his Stop The Dust campaign is “not about voting for new laws but ensuring existing legislation which already binds us is adequately enforced in Malta. Regrettably, currently this is not the case.”
“It’s a pity AD has adopted a partisan approach instead of supporting my efforts to stop the dust… I want this law to be better enforced in Malta so that we can reach environmental targets that already bind us, never mind higher targets which are still to enter into force.”
Cassola however says that Maltese citizens must realise that up to now, European laws can only control the amount of fine particles in the air.
“The percentage of dust produced by the construction industry, including quarries, is ‘fine’ enough (i.e. the dimension of these dust particles are small enough), to be controlled by existing European laws.
“However, the majority of fine particles in Malta are emitted from the power stations and from car traffic and, if one checks the data present on the MEPA website, one realizes that the minimum levels established by European laws are being continuously flouted in areas with high traffic like Msida. These type of emissions are not only an inconvenience but are also harmful to the health of many Maltese, hence the high amount of asthma and respiratory diseases and allergies.”
AD has already attacked the Nationalist MEPs on their voting records, citing the Krahmer report which proposed a revision of the Air Quality Directive, which sets limits on particulate matter (the fine particles produced by the burning of fossil fuels, such as car engines or incineration) found in outdoor air.
AD claimed that while “a PN MEP projects the image of a champion of residents” – referring to Busuttil – “the EPP consistently works to weaken legislation and postpone targets. Most of the health damage currently caused by air pollution in the EU comes from fine particles. On the Air Quality Directive, the EPP including Busuttil and Casa voted in favour of weakening legislation, and voted so that targets including that of particulate matter, do not apply in inhabited areas, roads and industrial installations.”
Busuttil says AD’s claims are false. “I voted in favour of Krahmer’s amendment for increasing standards in inhabited areas, allowing for lower standards only in uninhabited areas and areas which are not permanently inhabited, on the basis that in these areas there is no exposure to the general public… AD’s accusations are completely hypocritical because the Greens voted in the same way as the EPP-ED for the final compromise package.”

Busuttil hits back
Busuttil however says both him and Casa supported higher environmental standards for Malta, arguing that some Green positions on the environment are “unworkable and unrealistic”.
Busuttil says the EPP’s voting record tends to be more realistic because it considers the tough competition European industries face from third countries which do not have the same environmental standards as the EU.
“Putting unrealistically high targets and pressures on European industries will just drive them out of Europe or out of business with massive job losses… an AD MEP would vote for workers to lose their job in the name of unrealistically high environmental targets which cannot be reached in Malta at our stage of economic development.”
Busuttil takes as an example the Liese report on including aviation in the emissions trading scheme, which Air Malta was against due to its high targets.
“I took the view that Air Malta and other airlines should indeed make an effort to help tackle environmental problems. However, this should be done in a sustainable and gradual manner without harming the airline. We succeeded in this approach. Had Parliament followed the Greens on this report, Air Malta would have been driven out of business because of standards it cannot achieve and its employees would have been made redundant.”

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