Malta and EU should invest more heavily in green energy - AD

Alternattiva Demokratika joined European Greens in calling for public investment programme and long term policies on clean and renewable energy sources.

AD highlighted that moving towards a fossil-fuel free and renewable energy economy will mean reducing dependence on foreign sources of energy and leaving more money in the local economy.

The comments were made following a 27 September report by a panel of thousands of scientists of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The report said that it the climate is likely to warm by an average of two degrees celsius by 2100, and that it is “95 percent certain” that human factors are the dominant cause of global of warming.

“As we have insisted over the years, long term greenhouse reduction targets and policies should be adopted, to ensure long term investor certainty and promote job security and good job conditions in the sector. Government cannot remain issuing short term initiatives in this sector - something which is penalising both small companies and workers,” an AD spokesperson said.

The Greens' Chairperson, Arnold Cassola, added that Malta should make a strong effort to ensure that the 2020 target of 10% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions is not only reached, but actually surpassed. "The whole Maltese population would thus benefit from cleaner air quality and better health," he concluded.