SmartCity project 'nowhere as green as it should be'

The SmartCity development is nowhere as green as a project of its stature should be, Marco Cremona, speaking on behalf of Flimkien Ghal Ambjent Ahjar, said this morning, pointing out that the project makes hardly any use of alternative energy.

His comments, made at a business breakfast on the environment organised by the Nationalist Party, come ahead of a public hearing about the project later this afternoon.

A statement by SmartCity last week, insisted that the project is the leading energy efficient development in Malta and that their energy requirements were accounted for in the Environmental Impact Assessment submitted to the Malta Environment and Planning Authority.

But Mr Cremona, who said he had analysed the 800-page Environmental Impact Assessment for the project, said the development makes massive use of energy which the current power stations are not likely to be able to cope with.

Moreover, a state-of-the-art investment such as SmartCity should set a new benchmark when it comes to energy efficiency. “If we’re not forward-looking with a project such as SmartCity, what is our hope with the rest of development?”.

Closing the breakfast session, the Prime Minister said the country was at the cross roads in terms of how it views the environment, stressing that a strategic decision towards sustainable development needs to be taken.

Still, he stressed repeatedly that there was a price to be paid for this shift in policy focus and the discussions on the reforms ahead – the reform on the Malta Environment and Planning Authority being at the centre – need to take this into account.