Carmel Cacopardo

The polluter pays principle, embedded in the EU treaties, is a fundamental principle of EU environmental law. It is also an integral part of the Rio Declaration approved during the seminal Earth Summit in 1992. It was then adopted as one of 27 guiding principles essential for the creation of a sustainable future.

The polluter pays principle also forms part of Maltese environmental legislation. In fact, article 4 of the Environment Protection Act emphasises that the Maltese Government shall “take such preventive and remedial measures as maybe necessary to address and abate the problem of pollution and any other form of environmental degradation in Malta and beyond, in accordance with the polluter pays principle and the precautionary principle”.

In simple language the polluter pays principle means that the burden of environmental costs is to be shouldered directly by the polluter. In economic terms it means an internalization of the costs of production. That is to say, the polluter is expected to shoulder direct responsibility for his actions.

The cost associated with addressing pollution is not only measured in terms of euros. If this is addressed as an integral part of the production process it will feature as a cost of production. If it is not addressed at source, it will impact our quality of life by contaminating the air we breathe, the water we drink or the soil which feeds us. Then the costs will be paid by each and every one of us.

Three weeks ago, in these columns, in an article entitled Pollution fuels mental health risks (TMIS: 15 March) I had drawn attention to a briefing by the European Environment Agency focusing on the link between environmental pollution and a higher risk of mental health issues as resulting from current scientific evidence.

This is in addition to the contamination of the sea and inland waters as well as the air all around us which have been continuously subject to all sorts of emissions from our activities.

If we do not prevent pollution at source, we end up paying the ultimate price: through a degradation of our quality of life. Our quality of life is firstly impacted by a degradation of the environment around us. Subsequently we breathe contaminated air, drink contaminated water or digest pollutants which end on our plate as a result of a contaminated food chain. 

This is what EU environmental legislation seeks to address and eventually prevent.

It does so, for example, by ensuring that we do not contaminate the sea through discharges of sewage. As a result, we have the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive, the implementation of which has resulted in sewage purification plants which treat our discharges into the sea thereby ensuring that the seas around us are as clean as possible. We can, as a result, use clean seawater to address our need for water.

We also have the Water Framework Directive which seeks to protect our water resources in both quality and quantity.

Initially these and various other regulatory initiatives of the EU may point towards increased costs in addressing the pollution generated. There are however other possibilities.

If we look towards nature, it gives us clear indications as to how we can plot the future.

Take a look at any tree. At the appropriate time, it sheds its leaves, which disintegrate in the soil below. Nature does not waste the leaves shed by the tree, as they are reused and reabsorbed through the roots of the same tree as nutrients.

This is how nature’s economy works. Mother nature functions on the basis of a cradle-to-cradle philosophy in contrast to our cradle-to-grave attitude. The natural economy is a circular one which does not throw anything away: it recycles everything, and does neither pollute nor create waste. At the end of the useful life of any natural product this does not end in a landfill, nor is it thrown into the sea, but it gives birth to another product, a new fruit. It is reintroduced into the natural cycle.

Until such time that we mend our ways, regulatory action will point out our deficiencies. The first step is to shoulder responsibility, through the polluter pays principle. Then we must start addressing out shortcomings.

This is the future. Nature shows us the way. We ignore it at our peril.

Carmel Cacopardo is ADPD-The Green Party’s Deputy Chairperson

published in The Malta Independent on Sunday: 5 April 2026

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