Chris Said, parliamentary secretary for Public Dialogue and Information, yesterday outlined his government’s commitment to decreasing Malta’s dependence on fossil fuels and increasing production of energy from renewable sources, although he stopped short of supplying any concrete strategy to achieve the country’s targets as an EU member state.
“The government is helping … both with regard to direct subsidies and in encouraging buyers to choose energy efficient products and also through continuous educational campaigns earmarked to reach the younger generations, thus investing in tomorrow’s mentality and behaviour,” Said explained at a workshop on Energy Review for Europe, held yesterday at the University of Malta by Fondazzjoni Temi Zammit, together with Forum Malta Fl-Ewropa.
The workshop was the third in a series that began last March, and featured a talk by Prof. Robert Ghirlando of the Department of Mechanical Engineering, as well as a public debate chaired by Rev. Prof. Peter Serracino Inglott.
Opening the workshop yesterday, Chris Said stressed that the issue of alternative energy was increasingly relevant owing to the skyrocketing international price of oil, and also for environmental reasons. While detailing his government’s intention to press for greater education and to indirectly assist in the purchase of environmentally-friendly products, there was no direct reference to any clear timeframe or strategy to increase alternative energy production. Nonetheless, Said placed great emphasis on sustainable development as a top priority of the present government.
“Our policies should not be guided and constrained simply by their immediate effects but should include a more holistic approach,” the parliamentary secretary said. “We are no longer treating ‘energy’ in isolation but the emphasis rests on the term ‘sources’ and again ‘alternative ones’. In view of our limited resources both natural and financial we should formulate the way forward to ensure sustainability.”
Said also referred to last Friday’s discussion on the world energy crisis by the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD), which is expected to continue in the coming weeks.
The issue of alternative energy, and the need to reduce our oil dependency, was also given prominence in the Nationalist Party manifesto for the March 8 election, which referred to Malta’s targets as an EU member state: “By 2020, we would need to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% and reach the target of having 10% of our energy generated from alternative sources.”
Malta currently produces 0.02% of its energy from alternative sources.