Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1426475
9 maltatoday | SUNDAY • 7 NOVEMBER 2021 INTERVIEW us to take action enough to keep up with those tar- gets. There are, however, many things that industrialised, and even developing, countries can be doing; and in some case, are already doing. The EU is, in fact, at the forefront of this: I think it set a very good example, overall, in cutting down emissions since the Kyoto protocol; and telling developing countries that: 'If you cut [emissions], we will cut even more'. On the whole, I think that's the right message. But if you look more close- ly, there are some EU member states that are doing better than others… That raises the question of where one EU member state – Malta – stands in all this. The Prime Minister gave a very upbeat, optimistic speech at COP26… but does Malta's cli- mate change strategy really live up to its own, ambitious targets? Once again, I believe that we are on the right(ish) track here. Malta has adopted a low-carbon development strategy, which is a very good thing in itself; we have set very good targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions; and the change from Heavy Fuel Oil to LNG has also helped. However… methane is also a greenhouse gas. And it's a very noxious gas, too. I'm not a natu- ral scientist, but the health effects of methane are more severe than CO2, even in lower quantities. So that's one problem; and another is the fact that transitioning from gas, to something else, takes a long time. Personally, I am not seeing this as a well spelt-out strategy for Malta, yet. Let me give you some examples which annoy me both as a scientist, and as a citizen. Ide- ally, the energy transition should happen by looking at renewable energy sources. What do we have here in Malta? Mostly photovol- taics (solar), and wind… but we are now also experimenting with the possibility of using the sea as a source of energy. This is something we at IS- SI are very proud to be working on; we are advancing very good research, and getting very good results. But we are still a little far away. So if we are looking at short-term solutions that could be implemented tomorrow… it has to be photovoltaics and wind power, for now. Now: you would expect that a country with a low carbon de- velopment strategy would want to help this transition by making solar and wind power not only more available and accessible; but also cheaper. At the moment, however, the feed-in tariffs for those who install photovoltaic panels are too high. There should be more incentives – more sub- sidy; better support – for people to have a return on their invest- ment, if we want them to invest in renewable energy. Unfortunately, this is a gap we have here in Malta. And I also see a bit of a conflict: to me, it is clear that the feed-in tariffs for solar are not incentivized, because we are also selling gas. We don't want competition, in this sector. And this is a contradiction, when our strategy requires a transition to renewables… As for wind, this is a little tricky. Malta is a very small, very dense- ly populated island; so there are intrinsic, logistical problems of where to put both solar and wind farms. Nobody wants to take up valuable agricultural or rural land; and with wind in particular, there is also the issue that turbines are not aesthetically pleasing. However, if it is a necessity… if your house is on fire, for in- stance… you have to do some- thing. And I don't see any rush, or any incentives, to do what needs to be done, at the moment…. At the same time, however, Budget 2022 did claim to intro- duce certain incentives to help with that transition: though they were mostly limited to as- pects such as electric cars. Do you see this as another case of politicians creating the impres- sion that the right actions are being taken? There is an issue with electric cars, too. It is important to intro- duce better incentives, yes… but I don't think it is being addressed comprehensively. For instance: have we ever asked ourselves where the electricity to charge those vehicles will be coming from? Or whether it is going to be sufficient? Our colleagues at the UoM's Institute for Renewable Energies have already told us that, if every- one in Malta is going to be driv- ing electric cars… there will be a blackout every two days. We sim- ply don't produce, or distribute, enough power. And this, too, is part of the issue I was talking about earlier. Some- times there are important transi- tions that are not being properly thought-through for the long term…. So far, we have been talking about what can done in terms of global (or national) strate- gy. But as a small, vulnerable island state, Malta also has to mitigate the effects of climate change itself: some of which have already been felt; and others – like a predicted water shortages – are imminent. How well-prepared are we? And what sort of impact should we be bracing ourselves for? Objectively, I would say that the strategies and plans, especially of the Ministry for Climate Change, are on the whole the right ones. They are involving scientists; they are making the right com- mitments; on paper, everything seems to be in place. However, there are a lot of con- tradictions at the moment. For example: transportation has now become the number one polluter, in terms of CO2. But by building new roads, and widening exist- ing ones – taking up land from agriculture, and removing soil and trees which absorb CO2: all of which, by the way, also has an impact – we are only encourag- ing more people to use cars; and that means encouraging more emissions. Because even if there are now more incentives for electric cars: the reality, as we all know, is that the current situation is not really going to change for the foreseea- ble future. In terms of water, I think we've made giant leaps forward with projects to reduce water-losses, and to make Reverse Osmosis more efficient. However, if we don't control certain agricultural practices, such as over-extraction from the water-table, or the use of fertilisers; if we don't incen- tive the re-use of water, through certain technologies… if we keep on building excessively, so that valleys cannot process any more water, because they are too pol- luted, or over-developed… it's not going to be enough. On the whole, then, there are things we could be doing, at the moment; but we don't seem to be planning for what's ahead. In all areas, we could be doing much better: by incentivizing the good, and disincentivizing the bad. Let me illustrate that with a few figures: because to me, this is a little mind-boggling. Every year, globally, 5 trillion US dollars – al- most 7% of the world's GDP – are spent on subsidies for fossil fuels. In Europe, it's €50 billion; in Mal- ta, it's €10 million. Now: I understand that this goes towards helping paying our ARMS Ltd bills; and that it is an important social protection for those who are more in need. But to ensure a proper transition be- tween fossil fuels and renewable energy, there has to be an incen- tive. You have to make it a bit more expensive to use fossil fuels, and a bit cheaper to use solar or wind. This is not happening suffi- ciently well, at the moment. So while the road ahead has been well-mapped out, on paper… in practice, we could be doing much better.