Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1511123
12 EWROPEJ maltatoday | WEDNESDAY • 8 NOVEMBER 2023 OK, let's try and work out the answer for ourselves. Back in November 2013, the (then re- cently-elected) Labour gov- ernment published what it described – in all modesty, of course – as an 'ambitious' plan to achieve carbon neutrality in the automotive sector, by 2050. The very sentence of this 'Na- tional Electromobility Action Plan' read as follows: "Accord- ing to the latest National Green- house Gas Emissions Inventory for Malta 2013, road transport currently accounts for 16.9% of the total greenhouse gas emis- sions generated in Malta. This Government finds this figure alarming and unacceptable. It is the aim of this Government, therefore, to work towards making transport in Malta en- vironmentally sustainable." The same document went on to tell us that: "The current Administration is also keep- ing in mind future EU-targets. The latest European Transport Policy White Paper […] sug- gests specific targets for the total phasing out of the Inter- nal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle from European urban centres by 2050." Later – almost 10 years later, as it happens – Energy Minis- ter Miriam Dalli would reaf- firm that 'ambitious' commit- ment, in an article published in March 2022. This time, the very first sentence was: "Malta has pledged carbon neutrality by the end of 2050. The switch towards electric vehicles (EVs) will play a crucial role in achiev- ing this goal…" Dalli even suggested that her government was well on its way to achieving that target: boast- ing that, "as of March 2022, Malta has 6,000 registered elec- tric vehicles on its road, a far cry from the 2,000 vehicles regis- tered just two years before. This is thanks to the government's commitment to incentivise the uptake of electric cars through a series of measures, one of which is a substantial grant for individuals and companies who want to scrap their current car and purchase a Battery Electric Vehicle [BEV]…" Then, in September that same year, the same Minister Dalli reassured the media that: "Gov- ernment will continue to push the electrification of vehicles on the island towards the goal of zero-emission vehicles in Malta…" Somewhat bizarrely, she also added that: "The government will continue with its commit- ment to STOP IMPORTING INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINES [my emphasis], and we have given the cut-off date in the PL manifesto which is in 2030…" All of which brings us crash- ingly (if you'll excuse the pun) to the question I asked in the headline. Sorry, but… what went wrong, exactly? How did the government somehow manage to spectacularly lose sight of all those lofty 'pledges' and 'commitments', a mere two years after Miriam Dalli actual- ly made them? (And less than seven years before the expiry of its self-imposed target, of 2030?) Because let's face it, folks: Mal- ta is nowhere near on course to achieve any of those objectives. Indeed, we are arguably even further off-track today, than we were in either 2013 (when the strategy was first launched) or in 2022 (when it was publicly reaffirmed, for the umpteenth time). Let's go over everything that happened since then, shall we? Starting with an NSO report published in February 2023, which revealed that: a) Malta saw 35 new cars on its streets every day in 2022 [!], with the total amount of ve- hicles on the country's roads reaching 424,904; b) Twenty-three thousand new vehicles were registered in 2022, with 42% of them being passenger cars while 37% were motorcycles and e-bikes; c) The amount of passen- ger cars reached slightly over 303,000, which accounts for 74.7% of active vehicles; d) As at the end of Decem- ber 2022, 249,458 motor vehi- cles or 58.7 per cent of the total had petrol-powered engines. Diesel-powered motor vehicles reached 155,960 or 36.7 per cent of the total. Electric and plug-in hybrid motor vehicles accounted for 2.7 per cent of the entire stock, with a total of 11,626 motor vehicles. Now: given that there are 365 days in a year, '35 new cars a day' translates into an annual total of 12,500 additional cars, added to Malta's already se- verely congested road-network, in 2022 alone…of which a stag- gering 95.4% (yes, folks, you read right: 58.7 + 36.7 = 95.4) were 'ICE' vehicles: you know, the same 'internal combustion engines' that Miriam Dalli had earlier vowed to 'STOP IM- PORTING', over the next seven years… But wait, there's more. This week, the NSO published yet another report about Malta's automotive industry… and it turns out that: a) There were 436,000 li- censed motor vehicles on Mal- ta's roads by end September, an increase of almost 4,000 over the previous quarter; b) 74% of all licensed vehi- cles were passenger cars, 14% commercial and agricultural vehicles, and 11% motorcycles, e-bikes, scooters, and quad bikes. Buses and minibuses amounted to less than one per cent. c) The increase in new regis- trations amounts to an average rate per day of 69 [!!!] vehicles. The majority of the new vehi- cles were passenger cars (56%) followed by motorcycles with 18%. d) Petrol-powered engines accounted for 58%, followed by diesel-powered engines, and electric and plug-in hybrid en- gines at 35.9% and 3.7% respec- tively. It seems, then, that Malta has actually succeeded in beating its previous 2022 record of '35 new cars daily'… having licensed an astonishing '37.5 new passenger cars a day' [56% of 69], by the end of September this year. Likewise, the total number of licensed vehicles on the island has increased by 4,000, in just one quarter. Now: I stand to be corrected, naturally… but as far as I am aware, there are four (4) quarters in a year; which im- plies that – assuming that the current rate of car importation continues unabated, until De- cember 31 – by the end of 2023 we will have around 16,000 MORE cars on the island, than we had the preceding year. Meanwhile, the percentage of all those newly licensed pas- senger cars that are powered by 'petrol engines' has remained more or less constant, at 58%; as have 'diesel-powered en- gines', at 35.9%; while 'electric and plug-in hybrid engines' have admittedly increased a lit- tle… but only by a measly 1%. In other words: ICE cars – and may I remind you once again, that the government of Malta is supposedly commit- ted to 'phasing them out', over What on earth happened to Malta's plan to 'fully electrify urban traffic' by 2050? Raphael Vassallo