Malta topped the charts of a Eurostat statistic showing energy dependency on fossil fuels, with a high of 97%.

This is much higher than the European Union average of 71%. Gross available energy is the overall quantity of energy needed for all activities on the territory of a country or a region.

The whole of the EU recorded a 10.9 percentage points less since 1990.

Cyprus and the Netherlands stood at second position for fossil fuels in gross available energy, with 92%, with Poland coming in at third with 90%.

Sweden (32%), Finland (43%) and France (50%) stood at the lower end of the spectrum.

Fossil fuels include coal and coal products, natural gas, crude oil and petroleum products, peat and peat products, oil shale and oil sands, non-renewable municipal/industrial waste).