The trade union representing enemalta corporation engineers has expressed disagreement with the proposal to have Malta’s electricity supply dependent on a submarine cable to Sicily.

In a statement on Wednesday, the Enemalta Professional Officers Union (EPOU) commented on the Government’s climate change proposals which it has forwarded to the Climate Change Committee.

The EPOU does not agree with the recommendation no. 23 regarding the sub-marine cable connecting Malta to Sicily. It said that questions arise whether the security of supply will be threatened at the expense of reducing emissions.

The submarine cable is a real time provider of electricity and given the scenario of a cable fault occurring when 200MW are being supplied, the electricity network in Malta will surely collapse and plunge the whole nation in darkness with very serious consequences for the whole business community on the island.

To add insult to injury repairing a fault at sea is not an easy task especially if the elements of nature are against you, the union said. The cable interconnection has to be evaluated vis-à-vis the political, economical and social implications it may have.’

Late last year the union was accepted by MEUSAC as a sectorial committee, and in response set up a Sub-Committee of engineers from amongst its members with a view to studying the Climate Change Report.

This is one of several views submitted by the union to the Climate Change Committee in response to the Committee’s public request for feedback on its report. Other views submitted included reservations in adopting wind as a renewable source of energy. The EPOU said that it believed that a proper pilot project should first be initiated by the local authorities since not all sites were suitable for wind farming and that proper wind studies had to be performed on sites linked to be adequate to host wind turbines.

The union also said that there should be a form of partnership between the government and the private sector to follow a common path to tackle the challenges of climate change and suggested that all stakeholders should meet quarterly to analyse their progress in the actions taken. A certificate similar to that instigated by the NECC in the Euro Changeover to show the participation of the private sector in such programmes would be issued and presented to the company involved.

It also suggested that an agreement between local councils and the government should take place to address the issue of the status of Malta’s roads. There are secondary roads which motorists prefer not to use because of their bad state. As a result more cars are present in the main junctions resulting in higher GHG emissions.