ESG Radio Newsletter 24/10/19 

Key words: Local Elections / ESG List of Objectives / Party Portfolios / Coalition on Climate / Party responses in Manifestos / Government Green pledges / 25 Year Plan / Climate Action Plan

Well, it certainly has been an intense few weeks of discussion and debate during our local elections. We have been impressed with the way our environment has featured in all 3 manifestos, and for the positive reaction from all parties on receiving our very detailed List of Objectives.

Incidentally you can find our List on our website under Objectives 2019. – That’s on esg-gib.net. It goes into many areas of environmental impact on the Rock. We have published our objectives for circa 15 years and therefore have a long view of many of the key problem areas and where these are failing to improve and where progress has been made.

We resume our lobbying in earnest now as portfolios are defined and areas such as development & planning, transport, and the environment, assigned. These are key areas of concern we have studied for some time.

But lets take a moment to see where our deep concerns lie and what we take from the elections. A lot of energy, of the non-renewable kind!!, was expended,  and some of this went into acknowledging the biggest issue facing everyone today, that of climate change and need for change.

We joined with other groups earlier this year to form a coalition for action on climate change. This is a long held core objective of the ESG’s also and we therefore looked very keenly at what the parties were proposing in response to our call and the Coalition call for stronger cross party consensus on action required to reduce our overall carbon impacts in Gibraltar.

Generally speaking there have been solid reactions within manifestos to take up the challenge of changes needed to address climate change. We believe this is a highly urgent matter and will be following up with the newly elected Government and opposition parties to press for a timetable to roll out their stated commitment with meaningful actions. After all they have all publicly recognised the crisis and need for cross party consensus.

As Gibraltar continues to grow physically, so does our carbon quota and both are inseparable.

The Minister for the Environment last night committed publicly to start working on greening up Gibraltar. As well as delivering more green spaces, that we of course welcome, we hope that areas such as pollution prevention, environmental and public health issues, which are linked to construction, road and sea transport and industry, will also receive an early and strong focus for rapid action, as these affect us all on a daily basis.

The GSLP manifesto declared a whole raft of ideas on how to manage Gibraltar’s environment that we hope will be spelt out in the promised 25 year plan as well as the Climate Action Plan. The ESG will be following up on all these issues.

Visit esg-gib.net for more information.

As part of its major annual campaign, the ESG organised its 15^th CUTW action on the Rock with positive results for our environment. Gibraltar did it again, when over 400 volunteers in 26 teams of all ages took to our seafronts, green areas, underwater and cliff sites to pick out harmful waste from our natural environments. 25 separate areas were cleared. The day also saw support from specialist teams with abseiling, diving and boat access only sites tackled. Around 12 truck trips were required to remove piles collected by volunteers to a dedicated site for us to build up our mountain. Volunteers were also encouraged to separate waste into recyclable piles and others, and this worked efficiently on this occasion.

A few deliveries are still pending as special transport is needed so our ultimate pile will be larger.

The ESG recognises the value given to the day of action by the teams participating who are always very grateful to be giving something back to the environment.

The organisers wish to thank everyone who helped prepare and then launch the day of action. It is a very busy time in preparation for the day and without the CUTW team we wouldn’t be able to do this. Thanks also to our sponsors and a major thanks to all volunteers who did a great job on Saturday.

More info:-

As photographs and reports from the teams come in, we start putting together a picture of a community that is getting cleaner but continues to suffer from periodic dumping and littering in several areas. Post summer a lot of vegetation has burned away, exposing plastics, metals and rubble dumped inappropriately, often in sensitive habitats. Vehicle parts, furniture, contractor’s materials etc.  tipped the scales once again this year and volunteers worked really hard to remove these from their allocated areas.

Students of all ages took part and displayed great purpose in cleaning up the environment. A lot of plastic, large and small was removed, as were cigarette butts from various corners around Gibraltar. Known to be toxic to the environment these butts are nevertheless currently tolerated to be tossed anywhere and this must change and a dedicated campaign with enforcement enacted.

A full report on all findings will be presented again to the authorities.