Ekoskola students from different schools met Minister for the Environment, Energy and Enterprise Miriam Dalli and Environment and Resources Authority (ERA) officials to present their recommendations on the National Strategy for the Environment 2050, which is currently open for public consultation.
ERA collaborated with EkoSkola, which is coordinated by Nature Trust – FEE Malta, to ensure that the team of experts drafting this critical document can listen to the voice of the children, our future generation, so that their concerns and aspirations are incorporated in this strategy as well.
During a meeting at the ERA offices, the students presented a selection of submissions from over 675 recommendations that fellow students participating in EkoSkola submitted to policy makers over the years. The recommendations were proposed by 1,862 students from 348 schools during 16 sessions of the Ekoskola Young People’s Summit, between 2009 and 2022.
Minister Miriam Dalli thanked Ekoskola for contributing to the development of this strategy, which will guide Malta’s policies and actions for the next three decades. “Today you are presenting your views as children, but soon you will be adults in different walks of life. You will be leading, implementing, and living the actions and benefits of this strategy. With this forward-looking vision in mind, your participation is very important to us. Your proposals are an eye-opener, ambitious but not impossible to achieve. We are committed to incorporate them in the strategy, so that in the coming years, we will make them happen together.”
The minister encouraged Ekoskola and ERA to turn this meeting into an annual appointment, inviting the students to meet again next year, to go over their proposals and assess their implementation, while discussing new ideas.
Since its launch in 2002, Ekoskola has been a front runner in providing opportunities for young people to voice their concerns about the country’s sustainability issues. “Ekoskola students have repeatedly called upon policy makers to implement policies that would augment quality of life by improving the quality of the environment in the Maltese Islands. Nature Trust, which runs this programme, is convinced that quality of life in Malta would be improved if young people’s voices are appreciated by policy makers”, the eNGO said.
When the National Strategy for the Environment public consultation was announced last summer, the organisation produced a children’s version of the strategy’s executive summary and distributed it to the Ekoskola students and educators, for their feedback.
The National Strategy for the Environment 2050 is derived from the ‘Wellbeing First Vision for Malta’s Environment 2050’, which was adopted in November 2020. It was drafted by ERA following an extensive consultation process with over 60 stakeholders, including policymakers, academics, the business community, and the voluntary sector.
Following requests from stakeholders, the public consultation on the National Strategy for the Environment will be extended until Friday, 4th November 2022. To read the strategy and submit your proposals, visit era.org.mt/nse2050.
Source: Office of the Prime Minister