Malta fell even further behind its 2020 EU emissions reduction targets last year, according to a new European Environment Agency report.
The report, ‘Trends and projections in Europe’, which tracks member states’ progress towards the EU’s climate and energy targets, found that Malta’s emissions were 23 per cent above its annual target in 2017, compared to 15 per cent in 2016.
Malta has missed its annual targets every year since 2013 and, according to the report, its emissions are projected to remain constant until 2020 under existing measures, missing its final targets.
While transport remains the leading culprit, the report found that Malta was also one of only four countries where emissions in the building sector increased since 2005 and one of three where industrial emissions went up by more than 50 per cent.
The report suggests that the trends might partly result from increasing tourism, along with more buildings, transport, waste and also air conditioning systems.
There was a more favourable outlook in the two other areas monitored by the report, with Malta on track to reaching its targets in renewable energy and energy efficiency.
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With the country failing to reach its targets, it has been forced to buy reduction credits from Bulgaria, which has exceeded its own targets, as part of an agreement believed to amount to €180,000 a year. According to the report, Malta will have to keep doing this until 2020 to meet its legal obligations.
Environment Minister José Herrera has consistently maintained that the negotiated emissions targets were overly ambitious and could never have been reached.
He has said that Malta’s dependence on a service economy meant the only avenue for reducing emissions was the transport sector and this could only be achieved by phasing out fuel-powered vehicles.
Dr Herrera said last week that a ban on new petrol and diesel engines could be implemented sooner than 2040.
The latest report comes as the European Commission’s climate chief, Miguel Arias Canete, has called for the EU to aim for net-zero emissions by 2050.
In fact, the European Commission last week published eight pathways to reducing emissions, two of which chart a course for Europe to become climate neutral by absorbing as much greenhouse gas as it emits.
Under new targets on energy saving, renewables and transport emissions, the EU is on course to cut emissions by 45 per cent by 2030 and 60 per cent by 2050.