Government to set up climate change authority

Government will be setting up a new authority to monitor the impact of climate change and coordinate actions to mitigate its effects, Miriam Dalli told social partners on Friday.

The Energy Minister was addressing an emergency meeting of the Malta Council for Economic and Social Development in the wake of severe power cuts over the past two weeks.

During the meeting at Castille, Prime Minister Robert Abela also announced government will be doubling its investment in the country’s distribution network, aimed at having a more robust system.

Prime Minister Robert Abela and Energy Minister Miriam Dalli meeting with social partners (Photo: James Bianchi/mediatoday)

“This plan is in line with measures announced in the manifesto 'Malta Flimkien' regarding the strengthening of the electrical distribution", Abela told The Malta Council for Economic and Social Development (MCESD).

He said the yearly investment of €15 million will be doubled, to reflect the urgent needs brought about by the acceleration of climate change.

“The realities of climate challenge demand urgent action, and the country is investing €30 million to address these needs,” he said.

During the past two weeks, several localities in Malta and Gozo were affected by power cuts as Malta was among Mediterranean countries affected by a heat dome.  

Abela said the country must also take long-term measures to address the issue of climate change, announcing he has instructed Principal Permanent Secretary Tony Sultana to draw up a protocol for when the country faces the pressures of climatic effects.

"This protocol will establish mechanisms that the country welcomes when facing extreme weather," Abela said.

He mentioned concrete actions to tackle climate change, including investment in renewable energy at public buildings to strengthen the country’s electric grid.

"This increases the efficiency in energy use," he added while explaining how buildings such as schools and offices would be ideal for such investment.

Climate change authority

Speaking on the climate change authority, the energy minister said a Bill will be tabled in parliament for the setting up of such an authority.

Dalli said the authority’s main objective will be to carry out a monitoring of the impact of different activities on climate change, while coming up with proposals on the actions that the country needs to take to address the phenomenon.

Energy Minister Miriam Dalli (Photo: James Bianchi/mediatoday)

“The MCESD has a very important role to contribute on this matter,” Dalli said.

The Opposition had filed a parliamentary motion to set up a permanent commission to scrutinise actions on climate change, back in October 2019, but the motion had been turned down by government.

The motion had been filed by then environment spokesperson Jason Azzopardi. The Labour Party had hit back at the motion by attacking Azzopardi’s credibility on the environment.

The government had initially shot down the motion which had called for an entity and parliamentary committee to take charge of actions to mitigate against climate change.

The motion declaring a climate emergency was eventually approved following talks to reach a consensus.  

The MCESD meeting continued behind closed doors. 

Social partners are still waiting for details on compensation

In a statement after their nearly four hours meeting with the Prime Minister, David Xuereb confirmed that social partners still await compensation details for damages caused by the recent power outages.

“The subject of compensation was discussed... We heard the government commit itself to it, we have also heard all the social partners asking for it,” Xuereb explained.

However, details on the formula to be used to calculate such compensation is still not clear, which means MCESD “has to wait to see more details.”

The MCESD chairman said that after presentations made by Enemalta, the Government committed itself to proposed accelerated and adequate investment plans in the implementation of improvements in energy distribution in order to meet the country's expected needs and ambitions. 

“MCESD also advised that adaptation to climate change should address the overall national risks to infrastructure driven by extreme weather conditions,” Xuereb concluded.

The Malta Chamber CEO Marthese Portelli also said after the meeting that businesses should be compensated fairly on damage suffered during the power cuts.

"However, the country needs to look beyond compensation. The Malta Chamber insisted that the country should not go through the same experience again."

She said the Chamber insisted on the importance of accelerating the rollout and implementation of the required investment that needs to be made to the distribution network within a much shorter time frame then that originally planned to ensure that we do not have a repeat.

The Malta Chamber has also insisted that an evaluation and possibly even redesign the current network so that the upgrading is done adequately and is sufficient to meet the needs of the country.

The Malta Chamber has also insisted that the country’s budget needs to be focused on the areas that matter most, and this includes energy.