Malta will likely fail to meet binding greenhouse gas emissions targets by 2020 due to increasing traffic and road congestion, according to a new European Commission report.
According to the Third Report on the State of the Energy Union, though Malta has made significant progress to increase its share of renewable energy, particularly through PVs on private residences, emissions caused by transport have run out of control and reversed the progress made in the energy sector.
According to data sent to Brussels earlier this year, “it is expected the 2016 target will be missed by a 16-percentage-point margin”, the report said. “Similarly, Malta projection for 2020 expects its targets to be missed by an 11-percentage-point margin.”
Brussels said that this was due to a continued increase in transport pollution and a strong rise in hydrofluorocarbon emissions over recent years due to the replacement of ozone-depleting substances with fluorinated gases (F-gases) in refrigerators and air conditioners.
Malta’s share of emissions from waste was double that of the EU average in 2015
Waste, one of the major problems the island faces, is also a significant contributor to Malta veering from its targets, with the European Commission noting that “Malta’s share of emissions from waste was double that of the EU average in 2015”.
Malta has seen a significant worsening of emissions from traffic due to an increase in the importation of mostly second-hand vehicles.
According to an agreement reached following Malta’s accession to the EU, the country was to increase overall GHG emissions by no more than five per cent of 2005 levels by the end of this decade.
However, it seems that meeting such targets has now become almost impossible due to the uncontrolled increase in private transportation.
The increase in traffic flows also contributed to a significant rise in carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, the report found. “In Malta, CO2 emissions from road transport in 2015 were 95.7 per cent above 1990 levels,” the report pointed out.
Referring to the adoption of the “ambitious” national transport strategy and a transport master plan, the Commission said that while they included diverse measures to rationalise the use of private vehicles, promote alternative mobility solutions and make more efficient use of multimodal and collective transport systems, they appeared not to be enough.
Noting that such measures, if implemented, should create significant improvement, Brussels noted that “congestion is still projected to rise and greenhouse gas emissions from transport to decrease only modestly by 2030”.
The Commission said that, so far, despite government incentives connected to the use of electric cars, progress has been negligible.
“The share of alternative fuel cars in total sales on the Maltese market is still marginal, with a peak in 2014, when 0.33 per cent of the cars sold in Malta were electric – just 21 cars.”
ivan.camilleri@timesofmalta.com