Malta has yet to submit its report to the European Commission forecasting its 2020 renewable energy targets and giving reliable predictions of the share of renewables in its future energy mix. The fact that 12 other European Union member states are also late in their submissions is scant consolation and no excuse.
The document was scheduled to have been submitted a month ago and should then have been followed up by a more detailed plan, called the National Renewable Energy Action Plan, outlining the concrete measures being taken to meet the national target of the provision of 10 per cent of energy needs from renewable sources by 2020. The deadline for this plan is the end of June this year.
Malta is the only EU member state that is totally dependent on fossil fuels for its energy requirements. Before joining the EU, the island had committed itself to producing five per cent of all its electricity needs and 1.25 per cent of all fuel used in transport from renewable sources by 2010. That is, this year!
Malta is still at its starting blocks despite plans - still on the drawing board - for the development of three wind farms, one offshore and two land-based, and an interconnection cable linking Malta to the European grid in Sicily. Admittedly no mean feat but we have long known that we had to take action, serious and meaningful action.
Indeed, we have been talking about this matter for well over six years, yet action on the ground seems to elude us. It bears repeating that the issue is difficult and challenging. The human skills and expertise needed and the investment costs are formidable. The time-lag between decision and implementation is inevitably long. But these are issues being faced by all other EU countries too. It begs the question, therefore, why Malta should be such a laggard. It is, presumably, because decisiveness, priority, drive and commitment at the political level have been absent or, at best, half-hearted.
The achievement of energy security is one of the most important issues confronting Malta. Its water security is another grossly neglected area of government policy. The country's future economic, social and environmental sustainability depend on both these crucial challenges being successfully overcome.
There is an urgent need to replace Malta's fossil fuel-burning plants with less polluting and more reliable energy sources. Action is belatedly in hand. But there is an equally urgent need to back this up with alternative and renewable sources of energy.
It is not simply a matter of meeting, or not meeting, the commitments to the EU Commission. Of course, the country should deliver what it has promised. But this issue is more fundamental than any broken promises - or delays - to date. It is about Malta's long-term survival as an advanced economy in a world where fossil fuels are contributing to global warming, are increasingly more costly to produce and, over the long term, in ever dwindling supply. It is also about quality of life, where reducing the dependence on fossil fuel will help to mitigate the poisonous effects of air pollution.
The essential need to make real and tangible advances in the introduction of at least 10 per cent of energy requirements from renewable energy should be viewed against the government's own declared objectives of achieving greater energy efficiency, stabilising energy supplies and the pressing requirement to cut emissions and pollution. Action is now long overdue. There have been enough declarations.