A new draft environmental permits system has been drawn up by the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA) to improve the regulatory framework applicable to industrial activities of environmental significance. The Authority said the proposed system will improve the protection of the environment, while offering several advantages to industry, such as legal certainty, clearer definition of environmental liability and the opportunity to identify priority environmental issues to enable appropriate risk management. "The system which is risk-based, focuses the regulatory efforts on activities with potentially significant environmental impacts. Examples of such facilities would include fuel and container terminals, shipyards, airports, batching plants, quarries, fish farms, waste management activities, industrial activities with a discharge to sea and certain manufacturing plants," it said. Businesses that carry out such activities will be required to apply for an enviro