Żminijietna - Voice of the Left reiterated its stand in favour of sustainable energy use in Malta. The organisation declared its opposition on dirty energy based on fossil fuels as is the case with heavy fuel oil and carbon capture storage. Żminijietna said that people’s health and the environment come before profits of big businesses.

“Dependency on dirty fossil fuels will only postpone problems related to climate change and to the ever-increasing price of such limited sources of energy. Malta should shift to gas, as a transitional energy, as early as possible and invest much more in clean renewable energy, such as solar and wind to reach the 10% target committed with the EU by 2020. We also believe that renewable energy use should increase further after the 2020 target.”

“With regard gas, even though it is a finite fossil fuel, which, like oil, is expected to increase in cost, the truth is that it is much less polluting than other fossil fuels, though being more expensive.”

“The use of such fossil fuels means CO2 will increase. In what sounds too good to be true, the difference is that the CO2 is supposed to be captured forever.”

“Heavy fuel oil might be cheaper than other fossil fuels, but its negative impacts on the environment and on people’s health are too big to ignore. Besides, its price will keep increasing given that oil has limited supply. As regard Carbon Capture Storage (CCS), its use is too risky, and the world is already late in the battle against climate change. Captured CO2 through CCS needs to be transported to its storage, emitting CO2 in the process. Once the CO2 is dumped, CCS leakage could cancel out any climate benefit as do the increased energy requirements of CCS technology. Żminijietna is also concerned about the hidden costs of using this technology, which depends on fossil fuels such as coal and oil.”

David Pisani

Żminijietna – Voice of the Left.