Car-free day: from rhetoric to reality

Car Free Day was the latest initiative by the Environment Parliamentary Secretariat to ‘raise awareness’ about the need to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. It was a flop. It was never going to be anything else because in Malta there is no real practical alternative to leaving your car at home.

It became a national joke, and rightfully so. When politicians ask people to abandon their cars and hop on to a bus spewing clouds of black smoke and a hazardous cocktail of chemicals, they can’t expect to be taken seriously.

Initiatives to raise awareness are effective when they encourage public participation towards a common goal and the tools are provided for individuals to make a difference. To convince the nation to take action to limit greenhouse gas emissions, the government must first take decisions that result in the availability of cleaner alternatives so the public can make a choice.

It’s not enough that the Environment Parliamentary Secretariat issues statistics to show that the nation’s dependence on private vehicles is unsustainable. Talk of “the tyranny of the car” may sound good, but it would have been more credible if the same sources acknowledged the reason for it.

The truth is that it’s impossible to have a reasonably productive day if you rely on public transport in Malta. That’s the reason why there are seven vehicles for every ten persons in the country. That’s why Malta has “one of the highest concentrations of vehicles as a percentage of the population in the world”.

The public transport reform announced was welcome news because anything is better than what the country has now. Yet, it doesn’t excuse the continued failure to effectively control the emissions from buses.

The Environment Parliamentary Secretariat insisted that individuals choosing to leave their car at home and place themselves at the mercy of public transport would “undoubtedly contribute" to "the reduction of carbon emissions and to live in a better environment”. It must have been difficult to keep a straight face.

It’s useful to scratch beneath the surface of such public statements and look at the context within which they are being made. The reduction of greenhouse gas emissions will not be brought about by Car Free Day, but by a concerted effort by government to reduce Malta’s dependency on fossil fuels.

In the EU, Malta is the only member state still fully dependent on fossil fuels for its energy needs. Since the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions in Malta are the result of electricity generation, the decisions taken in that sector will have the most impact on their reduction.

Malta's greenhous gas emissions rose by 49% between 1990 and 2007 according to MEPA's State of the Environment Report. The same report shows that the energy sector contributes 88.7% of total emissions. Transport contributes 17.5%.

The first step to reducing emissions, therefore, is to reduce the consumption of electricity generated through fossil fuels. There are a number of initiatives that can be implemented, including the availability of renewable energy sources. Yet, their introduction has been so slow you’d have to go back in time for it to be slower.

Measures such as financial support to aid the uptake of solar water heating by households are good; but they are not enough. There should be a limit to the number of years a minister can refer to the same measures as achievements. Move on.

Last July, Malta missed the EU deadline for the submission of a renewable energy plan. When the government fails to meet its obligations to achieve a significant reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, the call for people to make a change will not be very convincing.

It is even less convincing when the government has the opportunity to make a real difference with the choice of fuel for the Delimara power station and instead opts for one of the most polluting fossil fuels (heavy fuel oil). Amid all the jargon, the real picture is bleak.

It’s not only Malta’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that is in question. The mismanagement of the energy sector has now created a challenging situation that threatens one of the country’s most basic requirements - a reliable supply of electricity.

A few tight deadlinesare coming up, and Malta depends on the success of every single one of them if the country is to have a decent supply of electricity in the near future.

The Marsa power station doesn’t have much longer before the EU forces the government to finally let its soul rest. The government is saying 2015 because that’s the final deadline the EU has set, but in actual fact there’s a limit to its use during that period of time. It has to be shut down earlier if that limit is reached, and the hours are being used up rather quickly.

The Marsa power station has used up over half its available hours of operation in only two years. At the current rate it will have to be shut down earlier than the 2015 deadline, possibly as soon as 2012. The increase in capacity at the Delimara power station will share some of the burden, but it will not be enough to make up for the loss of the Marsa power plant (the Delimara power plant extension is planned for 2011, but will only produce about 150 MW, while the Marsa power station generates around 250MW).

The country still has an unhealthy reliance on the battered plant in spite of promises over two decades that this would end. One of the major reasons put forward in the late 1980s to convince the public that a power station needed to be built at Delimara, was that the Marsa power station had to be phased out. In 2003, prior to the referendum on Malta’s accession to the EU, the government had promised the Maltese electorate that this power station would either conform to EU standards by date of accession or else close down.

Due to delays in the implementation of things, the plant could not be shut down when promised. This was acknowledged by Resources Minister George Pullicino. Now,it can only be replaced when the electricity cable linking Malta to Sicily is complete.

A project development statement presented by Enemalta to MEPA states: “If the project [cable] is not carried out in time, Enemalta would be hampered from satisfying consumer demand while meeting environmental obligations.”

The wind farm planned for Sikka l-Bajda also depends on the cable being ready, and the first stage of the project is planned for completion by 2013.Whether the project is actually feasible remains to be seen as studies are still being carried out. If not, Malta will not meet its EU renewable energy targets by a long shot. A "hypothetical" analysis by the National Audit Office found that if Malta fails to reach these targets, it could cost the country about €400 million.

Time is pressing and the next three years are crucial. If the country uses up the Marsa power station’s available hours before these projects are completed, the country is in a fix. The government would not be in a position to close the plant down because there wouldn’t be enough electricity supply, and if the plant continues to operate then the country will be infringing EU law aimed atstemming emissions of hazardous substances that can adversely affect human health.

In that scenario, the government will have to choose the better of two evils, and the country will be forced to accept the consequences of that decision. The country can only hope that it will not have to face this dilemma, but the possibility that everything will somehow work out may be too good to be true.

The track record so far doesn’t inspire that kind of confidence. It’s going to take more than a few ministers "setting an example" by riding an electric or hybrid car for one day in the year to achieve that. Dr Mario De Marco's presence in environmental decision-making has had a positive contribution, but Malta will only reach its targets if the ministers surrounding him rise to the challenge.