Making cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

Continuous economic growth has led to an urban development surge coupled by a strong demand for the necessary infrastructure which is not only affecting our settlement patterns and rural landscape from an environmental perspective but is also changing drastically the behaviours, norms and attitudes of our societies and communities.

The main rationale behind Sustainable Development Goal 11 “Make cities inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable” is to address and implement the concept of sustainable development as one of the core principles to improve the wellbeing of society.

Although it is a fact that urban developments are becoming more evidently one of the contributors of greenhouse gas emissions due to their increasing energy demands and consumption, SDG11 considers a broader perspective and its targets goes deeper on the effects on the society at large.

Legal Notice 47 /2018 sets up the targets to introduce energy efficiency in our buildings to consume less energy thus contributing to a decrease in the overall global greenhouse gas emissions. This goes in line with target 11.6 as eventually such a course of action would reduce the negative environmental impact in the long-term.

Affordable housing is a challenge and a concern for Malta, with rental prices increasing beyond the affordability of certain social classes and individuals. Target 11.1 obliges countries to ensure access to housing and basic services for the lowest income classes of society to have access for affordable housing. In the near future Malta will be embarking on a large-scale investment of €110million to create 1200 social housing units to address this social challenge.

Access to sustainable transport systems is another challenging target which must be achieved in line with the goals set up for this SDG 11. A dense environment together with a high ownership of personal vehicles are the main factors which are hampering mobility, causing congestion and a surge in emissions. A transportation modal shift among the locals needs to be more effective in the coming years so as to make more use of these alternative means and eventually shift from car-usage to other means of transportation.

An effective modal shift in the way we travel will be beneficial in view of a high population density in Malta. This ensures that sustainable development principles are adopted in our urban areas for the betterment of the quality of life.

Sustainable Cities call for a better solid waste management. An island, which is frequented by a high number of tourists, has a direct effect on the waste generation where most of it is being landfilled. Initiatives in relation to waste prevention, separation and recycling have to be further introduced to translate the generation of solid waste into a resource opportunity.

Waste management projects including the waste to energy facility are already underway to address the problem of waste disposal in landfills while others such as the Beverage Container Refund scheme are fundamental to increase the quality of recyclable materials whilst at the same time increase the life time of these resources.

This is an important concept which our nation has to adopt to decouple waste generation from economic growth.

Initiatives and improvements to all these current issues would ensure a healthy society and a greater chance of reaching the outlined goals to achieve sustainable cities and communities.