Minister confident targets will be reached

Rural Affairs and Resources Minister George Pullicino is not worried about the F mark given to Malta in a climate change report, saying the island’s measures to reach EU emission-reduction targets by 2020 had not yet provided the results expected.

Acknowledging the country had started late, he said he was confident Malta would reach the targets through the measures it was proposing to generate energy from alternative sources: the sun, the wind and waste. The results, he said, would pick up in the 10 years before the EU-imposed deadline expired.

The country is bound to generate 10 per cent of its energy from alternative sources by 2020.

The World Wildlife Fund slapped Malta with an F mark in a scale between A to G and urged the Maltese authorities to step up plans to reach EU emissions reduction targets and do their part to help save the planet from rapid climate change.

The WWF stressed that a more comprehensive climate plan was needed, with targets and actions that went beyond 2020 and that more measures had to be taken to cut fossil fuel dependency in the electricity sector.

The report also criticised the government’s decision to opt for heavy fuel oil to power the Delimara power station extension. Mr Pullicino defended the decision saying the extension would cut 400,000 tons of carbon dioxide, thus helping Malta reach EU emissions targets.

The report was not all negative. It praised the government for the climate change policy that included a good number of initiatives and expressed satisfaction at the measures in place for citizens to benefit from schemes for solar water heaters that would reduce the use of electricity in households.