06th September 2002

Malta fails to join EU on targets for renewable energy

A breakaway group of countries set themselves targets for renewable energy at the end of the Earth Summit Friends of the Earth (Malta) is disappointed to see that Malta was not a signatory.

Dismay over the weakness of the final outcome of the earth summit spilled over into the final plenary session of the conference yesterday when an EU delegation led an orchestrated protest over lack of targets for increasing renewable energy production across the world.
The leaders of more than 30 government delegations pledged to go further than the summit declaration on increasing the share of renewable energy as part of the global energy supply.

The countries concerned agreed to a regular review of progress, on the basis of clear and ambitious targets at a national, regional and "hopefully at a global level".

"Such targets are important tools to guide investment and develop the market for renewable energy technologies," their statement said.

Support for the proposal came from all 15 EU states, Norway, Iceland, Switzerland, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia, Brazil, Argentina, Uganda, Mexico and other Latin American states, plus some Caribbean and Pacific islands.

It is not clear why Malta has chosen not to back the proposal and the Parliamentary Secretary for the Environment George Pullicino should explain the government’s position. Does the Govt. of Malta support more renewable energy resources or not?