We need a serious discussion , not spectacle - ADPD on Malta Vision 2050

timesofmalta.com · Mar 1, 2026 · Collected from GDELT

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‘We need a serious discussion, not spectacle’ - ADPD on Malta Vision 2050 Green Party calls for alternative vision focused on ecology and wellbeing The Green Party has derided the government’s recent launch of its Malta Vision 2050 strategy as a “superficial spectacle” while calling for an ecology, wellbeing and sustainability-focused alternative. Responding to the launch of Malta Vision 2050, which took place at a lavish ceremony outside the gates of Valletta on Friday evening, ADPD said in a statement that despite the “fanfare... there is no real effort to change the basic premises of the government’s policy”. It said the government’s strategy was based on an economic outlook that did not take into account the social, economic and ecological challenges of climate change, but instead led towards “unsustainable use of our country’s resources”. Meanwhile, despite the strategy being opened to public consultation, the economy minister had not had the “decency” to discuss the Greens’ proposals, the party said, accusing the government of only consulting with the “usual lobbies that want business as usual”. Attacking Malta Vision 2050 as a “selfish wish-list of powerful lobbies,” ADPD chairperson Sandra Gauci said the party's alternative Green Vision was instead based on wellbeing and quality of life, sustainability, social and ecological justice, efficiency and good governance. “The Green Vision looks beyond economic growth as measured by Gross Domestic Product [GDP]. Ironically, by this measure, if more people get sick and buy more medicine, or if more polluting fuel is burned, this is recorded as 'growth' because profits increase... even though society suffers”, she said. Gauci said that while Malta Vision 2050 “adopts the idea” that GDP is not sufficient to measure progress, its targets were “almost exclusively focused” on the metric. The party called for “in-depth reform” of the financial and tax systems to encourage long-term investment and for more sustainable practises in the energy, water, agriculture and transport sectors. It charged the strategy with focusing on financial services, aviation, gaming and manufacturing “without mentioning how these sectors will reach the zero-carbon target”, while criticising its approach to tourism. ADPD said Malta Vision 2050 “completely ignores the need to reduce the use of local resources as well as imported resources” and pollution, while failing to provide tax incentives to sustainable operators. “It is truly unfortunate that the prevailing mindset is still that pollution and the impacts of the economy on people and on the environment are treated as something called an 'externality', where the owners make the profit, and society carries the impacts and pays for them”, Gauci said. She stressed the need to move beyond the worship of “'growth', 'competition' and 'innovation' as ultimate goals”, and instead focus on building an economy rooted in social and ecological justice. “To get there, we need a deep and serious discussion, not an artificial one with documents and spectacles that keep confirming the status quo.”