The Malta Employers' Association has urged the political parties to ensure that the right decisions are taken for the country with regard to the extension of the Delimara power station.
The association in a statement said it would not enter into the merits of the power station extension as it was not a technical body, "yet experience has taught us that the local adjudication process does not always result in the best of all possible decisions."
It said that the fact that the Marsa power station was still operating, in the midst of the most densely populated area, after the new power station was built in pristine countryside at Delimara, was a working monument to why one could have reason to question the decisions taken by Enemalt.
The MEA said it was thus urging the political forces to seek advice and assure taxpayers that whatever the decision taken, was the truly the right choice for the country.
In its statement, issued ahead of the international climate change conference, the MEA said it strongly believed that the Maltese government should do all that it could to ensure that the needed political agreement was achieved. Failure was not an option.
"From a local perspective MEA is of the opinion that there is still a lot to be done as a nation in countering climate change. It has only been till recent that the state has recognised the importance of the issue, and we hope that the matter shall be truly given its importance and dealt holistically," the association said.
It said it was raising its concerns not because failure by Malta to comply with the targets set by the European Union on carbon emissions would inevitably result in severe penalties and tax burdens on local companies and individuals, but because it believed that as a developed nation and as a member of the European Union, Malta should actively participate in the European vision on climate change.
Due to the fact that Malta was lagging in combating climate change, it should look at what other nations were doing and adopt the best practices in combating climate change. It said the two best policies appeared to be Germany's efficiency-in-buildings programme and its feed in tariff system.
The German efficiency-in-buildings programme is an integrated package of building standards, subsidised loans, grants and retrofit programmes. The programme reduces emissions substantially in the short and long term plus it creates jobs in the construction industry.
The other policy is Germany's feed in tariff (FIT) for renewable electricity. The strength of this system is that it guarantees a producer of renewable electricity a fixed increased price for 20 years. In essence the secret of the German success is that anyone generating electricity from solar PV, wind or hydro gets a guaranteed payment of four times the market rate - currently about 35p pence a unit - for 20 years.