A couple of weeks ago, the mainstream media reported that a man was arraigned in court and pleaded guilty to threats that he would shoot Prime Minister Robert Abela and ex-PM Joseph Muscat and making threats to Alex Borg. Forty-nine-year-old Abdullah Buttigieg was angry that he and his eight children could not keep up with the cost of living.
Opposition Leader Alex Borg had received text messages from Mr Buttigieg in which the latter said he badly needed help and that if he did not get it, "all of Malta will hear about me." Well, we certainly did. The Police did so too, charging the man with a raft of crimes, including misuse of electronic equipment, extortion and making violent threats. Buttigieg apologised unconditionally, was granted bail, was tagged with an electronic monitor, and was placed under a probation order.
My point here is: did the powers-that-be hear and, even more important, did they listen? At the last count, there were 95,157 persons (16.9% of the population) at risk of poverty ̶ those earning less than 60-% of the median equivalised income or €13,220, and 109,290 (19.4%) were at the risk or poverty and social exclusion. Mind you, some were earning considerably less than 60%. For example, there were 28.,620 earning less than €8,814.
I don't know whether Buttigieg has a job of some sort or not. Some might say he brought this on himself by his alcohol dependence. Did he? Or did this dependence perhaps develop because of his desperate circumstances? Whatever the cause, his family is extremely vulnerable. A family of nine cannot survive on €7 a day, let alone on €5 a day.
In my opinion, Mr Buttigieg and his partner (if he has one) deserve to get a medal. They have achieved a birth rate of 8, when the nation-wide one is 1.01, and the required population replacement rate is 2.1. I would venture to say that a caring state would get Mr Buttigieg a reasonably good job, give him all the social assistance required, and make sure that his children are given adequate health care and be properly educated.
Dear Miriam...
Energy Minister Miriam Dalli has asked Malta's social partners to propose measures to manage consumption during periods of exceptionally high demand, following the power cuts experienced during the recent heatwave. Apparently, her advisors can't even do a simple google search. Here's what I found in five seconds:
Raising an air conditioner by one degree in the summer can drop its power use significantly. Setting air conditioners 1°C higher could lower electricity use by almost 10% a year.
Switching old bulbs to LEDs cuts lighting energy use by up to 75%.
Combining ceiling or desk fans with the air conditioner helps to move cool air around the room efficiently and reduce overall consumption.
Keeping window blinds and curtains closed during hot days stops sunlight from heating up rooms and reduces unwanted solar heat gain by 45% to 77%. During peak sunny hours this can save a household 10% to 15% on its consumption.
Replacing old lights with energy-saving bulbs, such as LEDs, can reduce power consumption by 75%.
Unplugging idle devices (TVs, audio) typically reduces a home's electricity use by 5% to 10%.
Putting as much water in the kettle as one actually needs is another no-brainer.
Choosing low-temperature or cold-water settings for the laundry cycle will save between 75%-90% of the electricity used per load of laundry.
This is not an exhaustive list. But a strong educational campaign might help convince some consumers to adopt one or more of these measures. A one-time only campaign is unlikely to achieve tangible results.
There are dozens of other measures that have been talked about over the years, ranging from energy efficient buildings to wide ruse of solar power. I don't know how successful they have been. Suffice to say, however, that Eurostat statistics show that in 2023 energy consumption per capita in Malta was 247 Gigajoule - the highest in the EU bar Finland and more than twice Italy's.
Agreed, energy savings are critical. We need to bolster existing specific policies to lower energy demand. Long-term solutions are necessary, but they take time to deploy at scale - think of improving buildings' energy efficiency or encouraging the installation of more heat pumps or district heating.
Voluntary behavioural changes can also immediately shave off chunks of energy demand at a time when every little bit counts. But here's the problem: why should they if their bills are subsidised? Where is the incentive? Do they receive rewards for cutting down on energy use? On the contrary, government policy incentivises them to do the opposite.
"Lowering electricity prices is like removing the handbrake from Europe's energy transition," says Christophe Jost, Energy Policy Coordinator at CAN Europe. The European Commission, the IMF, the Central Bank of Malta, the Chamber of Commerce, and others have been saying for years that the current energy subsidies are unsustainable. Why should those living in huge villas in San Pawl tat-Tarġa benefit from subsidies to light their palm trees or to keep their pools lit up the whole night?
That doesn't mean that certain consumers should not be helped. What we need to have are more sensible schemes. Energy subsidies should be tailored to help the most vulnerable or the lower middle class, not everybody. The argument that energy subsidies are a declining percentage of government expenditure is a red herring; savings in subsidies can be used more effectively elsewhere.
My biggest objection to their current form is that they remove completely the play of the price mechanism. High energy prices motivate consumers to cut energy consumption so to keep their bills under control. Low ones do the contrary. It's very simple economics. We ignore them at our cost.
In the meantime, dear Minister, explicit rewards can prompt more consumers to change their consumption behaviour to cut energy use, recompensing them for the value that individual energy savings provide to the grid. In North America and Australia, utilities routinely prompt consumers to temporarily reduce their consumption at peak time in exchange for rewards and discounts. For example, in Australia, a utility company which paid consumers to save energy when the grid was under stress managed to cut power consumption by up to 42% over three-hour periods at peak time.
Smart meters allow ARMS to track electricity consumption over the day, so there is no reason why it can't reward consumers who cut back at the time when it matters the most. In the absence of smart meters, consumers could be asked to read and report their meters more frequently via online forms, also engaging them and prompting energy savings.
Smart meters also allow ARMS to provide feedback to consumers on their energy consumption patterns, both in real time and across seasons, and compared to their peers. This type of feedback can drive energy savings, and it helps consumers to better understand how their consumption varies throughout the day and across seasons and appliances.
As for industrial users, one measure could be the introduction of bidding in auctions to receive rewards if they promise to reduce their electricity consumption at peak times. A similar approach could be extended to households and smaller businesses:
Wrong direction?
Close to two-thirds (64%) of businesses have said that Malta is moving in the wrong direction, according to a new barometer survey conducted by MISCO for the Chamber of SMEs. Moreover, a majority of businesses (56%) remain uncertain whether the next twelve months represent a good time to invest, while only around one in five businesses believe it is the right time to make new investments.
The Chamber said that respondents attributed this negative outlook principally to concerns over the quality of life, economic pressures, infrastructure and national planning, and the cost of living. The survey found that employee shortages remain the single biggest challenge facing SMEs, cited by almost four in every ten businesses, slightly down from the previous survey. Unfair competition remains the second most pressing concern (19.2%), with businesses increasingly pointing towards inadequate enforcement of regulations as the primary source of market distortion.
This outlook clashes with that revealed by the Eurobarometer survey in September last year, though that was among the whole population, not just small businesses. Eurobarometer showed that 52% of the Maltese were of the belief that the country was moving in the right direction, which was a 10% increase on January 2025 results.
The European Parliament's Spring Survey revealed that 72% of the Maltese were fairly optimistic or very optimistic about the future. This was probably related to the fact that some 90% of the population was satisfied with its quality of life. Both percentages were substantially higher than those for the whole EU. Moreover, only 29% of the Maltese said they were beset by feelings of uncertainty, compared to 44% in the EU.
More comparable with the Malta Chamber survey is the Central Bank of Malta's Business Dialogue dashboard. This shows that during April-June this year, 54% of companies said they expect the economy to improve, while only 5% expected it to worsen. Over 50% of companies expected to recruit more employees (7% expected less), while 46% expected to invest more (19% expected less).
Another comparable snapshot comes from PriceWaterhouseCooper's CEO Confidence Tracker. In April, this showed that 71% of CEOs reported improved business performance, while 87% expected stable or positive conditions ahead. This suggested that the economic resilience observed across key sectors was not only holding but broadening, with fewer businesses experiencing downturns.
While I have no grounds to find fault with the Malta Chamber survey, and I acknowledge that in the business world sentiment can change rapidly. It could also be that SMEs are experiencing different conditions than other companies. However, my personal take on the survey is that it is currently an outlier. While the policymakers need to take note, more information from other statistics need to become available before one could say we might have a problem.
Quote of the week
"Congratulations on becoming a mother." - Greeting repeatedly given by Mater Dei to a 30-year-old grieving mother from Fgura, eight months after losing her four-day-old daughter.