In a statement to the media, it said that a public hearing is scheduled for Monday 9th September, at Villa Bighi, Kalkara, to get the feedback from NGO’s and the General Public.

In spite of the claims that energy efficient measures have been taken into consideration, M.E.E.R.E.A. is of the opinion that the huge energy consumption of Smart City (9% of national supplies), according to the existing proposal and its carbon footprint, are unacceptable.

Its energy design runs counter to both the EU Directives on energy generation and energy efficiency as well as Malta's binding commitment for 2020 - to derive 10% of its energy from renewable sources, the statement said.

Unfortunately, according to M.E.E.R.E.A., this situation is true of all other major developments in Malta, which ignore sustainable energy considerations and avoid implementing renewable energy systems in their projects.

M.E.E.R.E.A. considers that Smart City's promoters should closely study the Masdar City initiative in Abu Dhabi, as a benchmark for incorporating state of the art renewable energies/energy efficiency/waste disposal and carbon emission reduction technologies.

Smart City should be a flagship operation for these technologies, rather than a 'dinosaur' development, replicating mistaken approaches of the past century and also ignoring the mandate of Malta's EUROMEDITI initiative, which aims at fostering the development and adoption of new, sustainable technologies in the Mediterranean region.

Enemalta’s sigh of relief, following the reduction in peak load during this summer could soon turn into a nightmare, should Smart City come on line under its present project design, with a huge demand for cooling in summer, apart from other electricity uses. One question certainly comes to mind: “In this world of high competition, how expensively can the unfortunate tenants of Smart City sell their products and services, as their energy costs rise?” One has to avoid the situation where such an important development would ultimately demand energy subsidies from Government to secure its operations and avoid sacking employees.

M.E.E.R.E.A. also calls on MEPA to immediately start revising its policies relating to granting of development permits for large-scale projects. One of the major conditions for granting such development permits should be that developers would be bound to incorporate a full range of sustainable energy measures, to include on-site generation of electricity using renewable technologies, as well as energy efficient measures and innovative energy-saving building techniques.

Moreover, M.E.E.R.E.A. calls on Government to follow the lead of other European countries that have already taken major legislative steps, to make renewable energy and energy efficiency applications mandatory for all new and renovated buildings. This would not be a burden on Malta but rather provide a boost to local investors and distributors of renewable energy systems in Malta, whose business is stagnating at present.

Such a national move would also create new jobs and improve Malta’s image as a ‘SMART’ island, in all sense of the word, while ensuring real sustainability in the long Term, concluded the statement.