Malta

The Maltese Islands are situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, 93 km off the south of Sicily and 288 km in the north of Africa. The archipelago consists of three islands: Malta, Gozo and Comino with a total population of over 400,000 inhabitants occupying an area of 316 square kilometers.

The Maltese Economy is featured by its limestone, its geographic location and a productive labour force. The economy is dependent on foreign trade, manufacturing, tourism and financial services. In 2003, the number of tourists who visited the island exceeded 1.2 million.
The Maltese GDP is Eur 17,490 Per capita which places it just above the middle of the list of European Union. Malta join the EU in 2004 and it was admitted into the Eurozone since the 1st of January 2008.
Malta has only solar energy as a naturally occurring source of energy and it relies on imported fossil fuels. Its thirst for energy is quenched by the combustion of crude oil and other fraction of petroleum. The likelihood of existence of oil in Malta's territorial waters has encouraged the Maltese Government to go for oil exploration.

The dependence on oil has increased by 53% between 1990 and 2004. In 2008 the renewable energy market was still at an early stage during which only solar energy and biofuels were accounted to be used. According to the European Commission, Malta has a potential for solar and wind.
MIEMA’s participation in the Ele.C.Tra project addresses the possibility of utilising innovative means of transport by which Maltese commuters can begin to resort. As indicated by the name of the project, the initiatives being proposed are powered by electricity.
As part of the Ele.C.Tra project a National Support Group was created so as to aid MIEMA to identify a number of problems within transportation in the Maltese islands. It emerged from this group how statistics about the enormous amount of private cars indicated that there are more than one car per person licensed to drive.
On the other hand, Malta Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) explained how an advanced system of traffic lights can give priority to buses. With these the same organization that is working on automatic identification of road accidents, which can be made possible through surveillance cameras live on Maltese roads. Together these ideas ascertain strides in public transport and in the way traffic moves on our roads.

On behalf of the Ministry of Transport and Infrastructure, spoke about Demo EV Gabriella Cassola, the Maltese Government pilot project on the use of electrically powered vehicles.
The aim of the Ministry is to prove the efficiency of these vehicles, promote their use while ensuring that they offer the same service as other cars more efficiently.
Already here 90 charging points scattered to the islands where the driver of an electric vehicle can charge the vehicle.
These vehicles, taxi and monitoring schemes park & ride, together constitute the work and ideas that developed the Government so far.
Are initiatives of this kind that the country needs to address the recurring problems on the roads, the more congestion, air pollution and a major lack in the use of bicycles and other clean resources.