Oct 29 - GSD “Have No Depth Or Understanding Of The Environment” According To GSLP-Libs
The GSLP/Liberals say they have reacted to the GSD's “attempt” at an environmental policy with “huge amusement”. The party says that the GSD “seem to have been away from Gibraltar” over the past few years and not realized what has been going on, adding that their plans “lack all originality.” The party says that, “as if that were not bad enough, it is full of contradictions.”
A statement expands on these criticisms: “Any talk of a ‘better and greener’ Gibraltar uttered by the GSD is actually too sad to be funny, for the GSD is the party that in sixteen years abandoned the environment and had no policy either on environment or energy. ‘Energy efficiency’ and ‘renewables’ were quite simply not in their vocabulary. They must have picked those up from the GSLP/Liberals or from the very committed NGOs.
“As the GSD well knows, renewable energy, and a cable link to Morocco are all matters that the GSLP/Liberal Government has been actively pursuing because the Chief Minister has already announced it. The GSD is once again copying us and playing catch-up. Gibraltar now has its first ever solar energy generation feeding into the grid, with plans for a great deal more, and has already started work with providers of wave and marine current energy. So the GSD offers nothing new. It would have to start again.
“The GSD did nothing in sixteen years to treat sewage, being almost in denial about the matter. The tender for the treatment plan is about to be awarded and will be immediately after the election, ensuring the plant is operational within two years.
“Thanks to the work, and the CV of the Minister for the Environment and Climate Change, Dr John Cortes, Gibraltar is already recognized as a leader in environmental governance in small territories, and a recognized player in wider circles. Dr Cortes has represented Gibraltar in the United Nations General Assembly Hall in New York at the Climate Change Summit last year, and is due to attend the forthcoming CoP 21 summit in Paris in December. He has been welcomed by the UNECE and UNEP offices in Geneva, as well as by IUCN, the World Conservation Union, at whose world conference he has been invited to speak next year to showcase the progress Gibraltar has made in environmental matters.
“Gibraltar is now itself a member of IUCN and has been represented in more international environmental fora in the last four years than ever in its history."
FISHING
“Their stated policy on fishing is nonsensical. They say they would allow Spanish fishermen to fish in British Gibraltar Territorial Waters, as long as they possess a licence and that ‘in this respect the law will be upheld’. Except that the law currently does not allow this, so this is tantamount to going back to the notorious fishing agreement, only worse as even that had restrictions (never enforced) in numbers and distance from the shore!"
DIESEL POWER STATION
“That the intention of being a world leader in the environment should be followed by a declaration of the intention to placing a dirty, polluting diesel power station in the middle of a European Special Area of Conservation would be a joke if it didn’t demonstrate the utter ignorance of the GSD, which are so clearly an embarrassment to Gibraltar. And they conveniently avoid any mention of the pollution this would bring.”
Dr John Cortes commented, “This is the shallowest environmental programme I have ever seen. The GSD has picked up points it’s heard, but there’s no depth or understanding. And they have no environmental credibility. In all my contacts with leading environmentalists around the world, whenever I have mentioned the GSD plans for a diesel power station they have held their hands to their heads in horror, praising instead this Government’s commitment to gas and renewable energy. If they have little credibility here, they would be a disaster for Gibraltar’s hard won good name in the global environmental community.”
{fcomment}
