Master plan for solar energy in Malta to be issued shortly

A master plan for developing solar and other renewable energies in Malta will be issued shortly, according to the Ministry of Resources and Infrastructure.

A high-ranking ministry official told The Sunday Times that negotiations were almost complete with a consultancy to be entrusted with drafting the plan.

EU member states have pledged to generate 12 per cent of their total energy supply, and 22 per cent of their electricity supply, from RNE sources by 2010, and may soon adopt a target for 2020. Increasing concern about climate change driven by emissions of greenhouse gases, in particular due to the use of fossil fuels in the energy sector, have boosted support for a rapid expansion of alternative energy sources worldwide.

However, Malta was not represented at "Intelligent Energy Options", a high-level European conference in Berlin last week, co-hosted by Germany and the European Commission and attended by 650 participants from 45 countries, including 10 EU members and two accession states. Ministry sources did not specify reasons for Malta's non-attendance.

The conference was convened as a European regional preparatory meeting for the "Renewables 2004" global conference hosted by Germany in Bonn next June at which a majority of the world's nations are expected to adopt ambitious global targets and timetables for worldwide RNE development which were not agreed at the World Summit for Sustainable Development in Johannesburg (August 2002), due to US and OPEC opposition.

Malta is a member of the 80-nation Johannesburg Renewable Energy Coalition (JREC), committed to promoting such goals and launched by the EU at the WSSD.

The Berlin conference's final conclusions urged "EU institutions to start a political process of setting ambitious, time bound targets for increasing the share of renewable energy in final energy" by the Bonn conference.

A 2020 target of at least 20 per cent of gross EU inland energy consumption was achievable, the conclusions stated. The conference also called for removal of market barriers to and development of financial instruments for worldwide RNE development with expanded activities for the JREC coalition.

The European Commissioner for Energy and Transport, Loyola de Palacio, came under heavy attack from environmental NGOs.

In a press release on the conference outcome, the global NGO coalition CURES - Citizens United for Renewable Energy and Sustainability - stated that "a major problem for progress has been the lack of commitment for the process by the EU Commission... the EU's Commissioner for Energy Loyola de Palacio has continuously blocked clear targets for renewables.

The fact that she did not attend this conference clearly illustrates the importance she gives to renewables. The Commission must change course so that the EU can lead a global process of transformation towards a sustainable energy system and fulfil its Kyoto Protocol Commitments."

CURES urged the enlarged EU to agree clear and ambitious targets for renewable energy in the EU countries by next June, including a new 2020 target of at least a 25per cent renewable energy share in total energy supply. The EU must also structure long-term RNE co-operation with non-EU states while the European Investment Bank should stop financing fossil and nuclear energy projects.