The Malta Chamber of Commerce warned on Friday that no one should try jeopardise EU funding for Malta’s energy transition.

Its warning comes a day after the PN said it was unacceptable for EU funds to go towards compensating Electrogas shareholders on a contract that should have long been scrapped for being "tainted in corruption and blood".

The day before - on Wednesday - Matthew Caruana Galizia hit out at plans for the EU to fund a gas pipeline he said would financially reward the person prosecuted for his mother’s assassination. Daphne Caruana Galizia was assassinated by a car bomb in October 2017.

However, on Friday the chamber urged for caution and "to keep in mind the national interest in matters related to energy provision".

It was imperative, it said, that Malta found ways of addressing concerns related to the existing agreements independently of proposed projects that could provide the island with more options for energy generation in future.

"For the benefit of our country and the business community, no one should try to jeopardise EU funding for Malta’s energy transition.

"The green transition, which the EU including Malta is committed to, will require countries to be very careful with managing their energy supply options to minimise the risk of spikes in energy prices.

"If this is not maintained, it will hurt the competitiveness of European businesses and provoke social unrest."

It added that the decarbonisation of transport required an accelerated process of electrification of vehicles that would increase energy demands by 30 to 50%.

While solar, wave power and wind energy were renewable sources that Malta could tap into, these were also inconsistent energy sources.

"In the absence of high-volume energy storage technologies, which do not exist and do not seem to be within reach in the foreseeable future, renewable sources need to be complemented by on-demand energy sources.

"The only such carbon-neutral source is nuclear energy, which most EU countries have never invested in or voted out. The next cleanest on-demand energy source is gas. Even the production of hydrogen itself is energy-intensive. So while this fuel holds promise for the decarbonisation of large vehicles, ships and aeroplanes, energy generation and the pace at which viable alternative technologies will develop, remain a key challenge for the green transition."

It was, therefore, "imperative" for Malta to have a gas pipeline in place by 2028 when the current 10-year agreement for the supply of gas expires, the chamber said.

"Irrespective of the requirements of the existing energy and fuel supply agreements, which should, of course, be questioned on their own merits, we cannot risk putting in danger the country's energy supply for the future.

"The possibility of converting the proposed gas pipeline into a hydrogen pipeline improves the long-term viability of the project. It is a fact that we have one main energy provider and we do not have the luxury of making subjective assessments on the shareholders of our energy provider before deciding whether to switch the light on or off.

"At this stage Malta needs to have its second interconnector by 2025 while continuing to invest on renewable energy so as to reach its decarbonisation targets," it added.