Money earmarked to build a second interconnector should have instead been used to increase renewable energy capacity and strengthen the local electricity grid, ADPD believes.

Carmel Cacopardo called on the government to dramatically increase its renewable energy targets and aim to generate 50 per cent of the country’s power from renewable sources by 2030.

The current target – 11.5 per cent – is the EU’s lowest and has already been reached.

“We will have to pay, either through taxes or directly, the true price of energy from foreign sources, if Malta does not drastically increase its share of renewable energy in its energy mix,” the Green Party chairman warned.

Cacopardo was speaking during an ADPD press conference held in Birzebbuga, close to a recently-inaugurated solar farm.

ADPD held a press conference close to the Freeport on Saturday morning.

He was accompanied by ADPD secretary general Ralph Cassar, who expressed concern that the government seemed to have ignored warnings about blanket subsidies on energy being unsustainable.

Zero progress on zero-carbon

Instead of pushing to transition to green sources of energy that are locally produced, the government – and Maltese MEPs – appear to be opposing the inevitable and doing all they could to avoid change.

Cassar noted that the EU is making significant steps forward in this regard, with the European Parliament having recently approved a proposal to set clear deadlines for buildings to be converted to zero-carbon ones.

However, all Maltese MEPs, both Labour and Nationalist, voted against the proposal.

“They voted against making buildings zero-carbon,” ADPD’s Cassar said.

Cacopardo said it is clear the government has no interest in pushing construction to build zero-carbon buildings or make photovoltaic systems a prerequisite for new or existing buildings.

The government could kickstart that sort of move by ensuring that all public buildings become zero-carbon in a relatively short time. It could also impose high standards on the construction industry, to ensure new buildings are zero carbon.

Instead, Cacopardo said, “we have reached a point where speculators are being allowed to put property which doesn’t meet basic energy efficiency and insulation standards on the market at exorbitant prices.

“Energy efficient buildings and the generation of electricity from the roofs of all buildings must become the norm enforced by law. We have no choice.”