“Gozo is different. Gozo is unlike Malta. Gozo is special,” they said. Gozo is “the ideal testing ground for low-carbon technologies” and could reach carbon neutrality before 2050, stated Energy Minister Miriam Dalli during a meeting with the Gozo Business Chamber in 2020.
Almost two years later, Gozo was announced as one of 100 ‘European cities’ aiming to be climate-neutral by 2030. That’s seven years from today.
As Gozitans, we can only be cynical about high-sounding targets of this sort. The memory of Eco Gozo still lingers as just that – a faded memory with little substantial outcome if public knowledge is anything to go by. Yet, for the sake of argument, let’s move past that and look into the strategies and actions in place to reach the goal of a climate neutral Gozo by 2030.
The Gozo Business Chamber’s response to the Malta Low Carbon Development Strategy (June 2021) focused on one action: switching private and public transport vehicles (including ferries) to hybrid or fully electric vehicles (EVs).
Incentives to support this would include reductions in ferry ticket prices for non-Gozitan visitors driving EVs. While this is undoubtedly a step in the right direction, it’s concerning to see that the plan stops there.
Although there seems to be a grant available for the private purchase of EVs, there’s no information about how we will financially manage EV maintenance in the long term.
We haven’t heard of any plan to designate EV parking and charging stations within our severely limited public spaces. We’ve heard nothing about safe transport and cost for recycling EV batteries, which have a 10 to 13-year lifespan.
If we really expect Gozo to achieve climate neutrality in eight years, would a transition to EVs do the job? And even if it would, are Gozitan businesses and communities prepared for this change? And, even if they are, is this plan being taken seriously by consumers and the government who announced the 2030 deadline in the first place?
We’re currently sitting on infinite untapped potential that would lead us towards a greener, more self-sustaining Gozo
Looking around our island, can we really tell ourselves that we’re on track?
We can do better. We need to do better. EV transport is just one of a myriad of initiatives that should be implemented or, at the very least, attempted in order to bring us anywhere near our climate goals. Our vision is in desperate need of an upgrade. There is really no time to waste.
We’re currently sitting on infinite untapped potential that would lead us towards a greener, more self-sustaining Gozo. The climate crisis we’re facing brings with it a food crisis, of which we’re still in denial. The urgent truth is that local farmers need our support and our ODZ areas need to be safeguarded. The value of agricultural land needs our full attention and respect; empty concrete buildings will not feed us. We are in dire need of urban green spaces; our air is already too hot and polluted to bear.
Now for the greenhouse gas-emitting elephant in the room: Gozo is completely dependent on mainland Malta for power and renewable energy on a regional scale is non-existent. In 2021, 78.9 per cent of total electricity in Malta was derived from non-renewable natural gas, with 12.2 per cent being sourced from oil and petroleum products. Malta ranked last among EU member states for renewable energy in 2018 and we missed our measly target of 10 per cent in 2020. The EU target for 2030 is 32 per cent.
Why are we refusing to provide the infrastructure for wind and solar energy systems when we’ve so easily given up land for swimming pools and weekend flats? When can we expect realistic solar energy schemes that include energy storage facilities, to render private investment and maintenance of solar panels economically feasible?
When will we see intelligent, human-centric, energy-efficient design within our infamous construction industry? When will the transport minister change his mind about sustainable mobility and catch up with the 21st century, where bicycles are more than just a nuisance for cars and a death trap for people trying to do better?
The questions go on and on. Sometimes, the answers dare to blossom in our tired minds. More and more, it feels like activists are shouldering the full responsibility of our island’s future, desperately spoon-feeding the people being paid by our taxes to find solutions or, at least, provide the frameworks for solutions to be found.
If that’s what it takes, then spoon-feed we will. But is anyone even listening?
Julia Camilleri is PRO and Simone Azzopardi is chairperson of Għawdix.