National Strategy for the Environment

A healthy environment is both our duty and our right, and it is each and everyone’s moral and legal obligation to contribute towards a sustainable future. Choosing the path and setting the pace for protecting and managing our environment from now till the next generation is critical for a future which includes our common goods. This is exactly what the National Strategy for the Environment (NSE) will strive to achieve. The NSE is a strategic governance document serving as an umbrella framework for environmental elements targeting all national plans, policies and programs. Through this Strategy, planning for our environment for approximately the next 30 years, to 2050, will be undertaken to set out the direction to follow to protect and improve the environment within a generation. The National Strategy for the Environment is a successor to the National Environment Policy.

The requirement for the NSE arises from Articles 45 – 47 of the Environment Protection Act (Cap. 549), where it is defined as a strategic governance document which sets the policy framework for the preparation of plans, policies and programs issued under the Act or under any other Act for the protection and sustainable management of the environment, including land and sea resources.

The ultimate objectives of the NSE are to:

ensure a better and sustainable quality of life
provide clear and long-term direction for our environment
set out national environmental targets
address the main environmental challenges Malta is facing
integrate and synergise efforts of all policies and stakeholders who directly or indirectly
influence the state of our environment

The intent and objectives of the NSE and its Vision for 2050 were published for public consultation in April 2019 on the ERA website, konsultazzjoni.gov.mt and on the Government Gazette (No. 20,177). The relevant consultation brief can be accessed from here.