Rural Affairs and Environment Minister George Pullicino has taken part in a forum in Rome that dealt with the candidature of Milan as the site for Expo 2015, on the theme Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life.

Malta is supporting the Milan candidature.

Sustainable consumption, Mr Pullicino said, was one of the weapons that could be used throughout the world to fight climate change.

He said that strategy should be adopted through which young people would learn that increases in energy consumption, especially through patterns of life that were not sustainable, were partly responsible for climate change.

Agriculture could be used to combat the phenomenon, he said, but then agriculture itself could produce gases that were responsible for the greenhouse effect.

Mr Pullicino pointed out that the sea could also be used as a source of alternative energy. Malta had a population density of 1,200 people for every square kilometre he said, and believed that the maritime environment could help it achieve its goals, through bio-fuels, for instance, which could be produced from algae.