The GSD has said that the Government’s continued attempts to portray their environmental record as anything but a failure is “farcical”. The party says that after six years this administration has achieved a total of 1% of our community’s power supply needs through renewable energy sources and that the target is to reach 20% in just two more years.

Trevor Hammond, GSD spokesman for the environment said: “This is an important issue not simply because Government is failing to achieve targets, renewable energy reduces our reliance on fossil fuels, improves air quality locally and therefore improves public health and makes us more resilient to fuel price fluctuations. Alas even the figure of 1% quoted by the Minister does not stand up to any scrutiny. He said that the total energy sourced from renewables in Gibraltar is just over 93000KWh, this of course would be meaningless to most people so it’s important to look at what this actually represents. 93000KWh could serve the energy demands of about 30 average apartments for a year. You could power about 360 domestic fridge freezers for a year, about 240 LCD TVs or 2800 energy saving light bulbs. Even if you allow a margin of error it is clear that this is nothing like 1% of the total energy demands of our community. In quoting that paltry 1% the Minister was still making Government’s achievements sound better than they actually are.

“How does this compare with other European Nations. Figures published in 2015 show that UK produced 22% of its energy from renewables, France 17%, Germany 32%, Luxembourg manages 15%. This range is average, there are some that are even better, few are worse, none so poor as our own.”

Mr Hammond continued: “One has to ask where the big projects that will allow us to achieve this 20% target are. Government is never shy to come forward with much fanfare about new and exciting schemes. The east side Eco wave project was the great hope when announced back in May 2016. A year and a half later its average power output is almost sufficient to provide the annual energy demand of a single domestic microwave oven, it was supposed to provide 15% of our community’s total energy needs by 2020. Is it not time for Government to take stock, set some realistic goals and stop pretending to us that it can even come close to the targets it has set. Is it not time that they ended this farce?”

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