Opposition MP questions government’s plan to reach renewable energy targets

Ryan Callus calls on MEPA to publish a preliminary study that had deemed Zonqor Point an acceptable site for the construction of a new university

Opposition MP Ryan Callus questioned how the government plans to produce 10% of its energy through renewable sources, an EU target Malta has committed itself to reaching by 2020.

“MEPA recently rejected the previous administration’s application to construct a wind farm at is-Sikka l-Bajda,” Callus said in Parliament during a second reading of the Climate Action Bill. “That wind farm alone would have made up for 4% of Malta’s EU target. We still have no idea how the government plans to make up for it.”

MEPA’s planning directorate had recommended the project’s refusal. Its acceptance would have meant that Malta would have had to invoke an overriding public interest to justify the breach of the EU’s Habitat Directive.

Former Environment Minister George Pullicino warned that Malta will incur fines if it fails to meet its EU targets.

Callus added that the government should have published its National Renewable Energy Plan in 2013.

He also challenged MEPA to publish apreliminary site assessment of land near Marsascala for the construction of the American University of Malta. There is as yet no development application for the new private university campus, but a MEPA spokesperson told MaltaToday that a preliminary site assessment on Zonqor Point has been carried out, with “the proposed site deemed as an acceptable site”.

“The Prime Minister has said that MEPA will consider alternative sites in the south for the University, but we have now found out that MEPA have already deemed the proposed site an acceptable one,” Callus said.