"The government has failed to deliver on its renewable energy promises over the past 13 years, leaving Malta dependent on fossil fuels and landfills."

The claim in context

In a 2026 PN press conference, Shadow Energy Minister Mark Anthony Sammut said: "The government's failure to deliver on what it has promised over the past 13 years means that Malta remains dependent on fossil fuels and landfills, instead of moving towards a modern and sustainable system as befits a modern European country in 2026."

The statement has two distinct parts: (a) "failure to deliver" over 13 years — a verdict on Labour's track record — and (b) "still dependent on fossil fuels and landfills" — a description of the current state. The two should be assessed separately.

What the renewable share has actually done since 2013

Eurostat's Sustainable Development Indicators series tracks each EU member state's share of renewables in gross final energy consumption. Malta started from essentially zero in the mid-2000s, was at roughly 3.7% when Labour took office in March 2013, and has climbed steadily since then.

From 3.7% to 17.2% is roughly a 4x increase under Labour. The gap to Malta's 2030 EU target of 24.5% has narrowed from about 21 percentage points (2013) to about 7 (2024). That is real, measurable progress — not "failure to deliver."

What is true is that Malta will likely miss the 2030 target on the current trajectory: Eurostat itself flags this series as "acceleration needed." So Sammut has a fair critique to make — just not the one he made.

The "still dependent on fossil fuels" part

This part of the claim is defensible. Malta has the EU's lowest share of renewable electricity, at 10.7% in 2024. The headline overall figure (17.2%) is held up almost entirely by renewable heating & cooling (59.2%, mostly solar water heaters), where Malta is among the EU's leaders.

So the "still dependent on fossil fuels" framing is broadly true for the electricity grid, even though "still dependent on landfills" is a separate (waste-management) topic and stretches the energy-policy point.

Bottom line

One half of Sammut's claim — that Malta is still heavily fossil-dependent in electricity generation — is defensible. The other half — "failure to deliver over 13 years" — is contradicted by the data: Malta's RES share has roughly quadrupled under Labour and is materially closer to the 2030 EU target now than when the government took office. Combining a true premise with an overstated framing is the textbook Misleading construction. Verdict: Misleading.