Not just the grid: NGO pushes for greater focus on energy-efficient buildings

Malta’s recent nationwide power outages have exposed not only weaknesses in the electricity grid but also decades of failures to enforce energy-efficient building standards, environmental NGO Flimkien għal Ambjent Aħjar (FAA) has said.

In a statement issued after this week's prolonged blackouts, the NGO argued that while investment in Enemalta's infrastructure is essential, reducing electricity demand through better-designed buildings is equally important if Malta is to cope with increasingly frequent heatwaves.

The comments come after thousands of homes and businesses across Malta were left without electricity during one of the hottest periods of the year. The outages forced some hotel guests to sleep on beaches or outdoors, left vulnerable residents without air conditioning for days and prompted the government to announce compensation for affected households and businesses. Enemalta later acknowledged that record electricity demand had caught the grid under significant strain.

FAA said the crisis showed that climate resilience "cannot be achieved through infrastructure upgrades alone".

"The widespread power outages experienced across Malta this week during an intense heatwave have exposed the vulnerability of both our electricity infrastructure and built environment," the NGO said, pointing to reports of people sleeping in their cars to access air conditioning and businesses forced to suspend operations.

The organisation said Malta has had energy performance regulations in place since transposing the EU's Energy Performance of Buildings Directive in 2012. However, it argued that those standards have been weakened over time and are often ignored.

It accused some developers of treating energy performance as optional, while claiming the Planning Authority and Building and Construction Authority largely fail to verify compliance during the permitting process. It also criticised banks for not consistently taking energy performance into account when financing developments.

FAA called for stricter enforcement of existing regulations, mandatory insulation for exposed roofs and walls, greater investment in retrofitting older buildings, wider installation of rooftop solar panels and energy storage, and more urban greening to reduce heat stress. It also said authorities should require stronger justification before approving new hotels because of their comparatively high energy consumption.

FAA environment officer Benjamin Mifsud Scicluna said climate change was no longer a future challenge but a present reality.

"Electricity is a basic and fundamental resource, crucial for public health and well-being. Investing in climate-resilient buildings today will reduce energy demand, strengthen Malta's resilience to future heatwaves, and help ensure that scenes such as those witnessed this week do not become the new normal," he said.