The European Commission has endorsed Malta’s Social Climate Plan, the fourth plan under the Social Climate Fund. The fund uses money raised through carbon pricing to help vulnerable households and small businesses move to cleaner ways of heating, cooling and travelling. Its aim is to make the clean transition fairer and to help protect people from higher energy and transport costs.
Starting this year until 2032, the Maltese Social Climate Plan will mobilize €60.6 million. €45.4 million will be made available from the Social Climate Fund, while Malta will cover the remainder, representing at least 25% of the total costs of the plan.
Support for cleaner buildings
The plan focuses strongly on helping low and lower middle income households live in more energy efficient homes to reduce energy costs. It will:
- support renovations of social housing apartments to reduce primary energy use by 60%
- equip social housing estates with renewable energy systems, including energy-efficient water-heating and air-cooling systems, as well as photovoltaic installations and battery storage systems
Support for cleaner transport
The plan will also finance both public and private sustainable transport solutions. It will:
- help local councils to expand on-demand community transport services for vulnerable transport users by acquiring electric vehicles
- support vulnerable micro-enterprises in transitioning away from fossil fuels by helping them purchase electric vehicles and install charging points
Helping vulnerable households and micro-enterprises
The Plan will benefit vulnerable households and microenterprises, including:
- people facing energy or transport poverty
- micro-enterprises most exposed to fossil fuel price shocks
Malta prepared the plan in consultation with national stakeholders and in cooperation with Commission services to reflect the national context and the specific needs of the country.
The Commission considers that the Maltese plan gives a strong and lasting response to the new carbon pricing system for fuels in buildings and road transport sector in the EU (known as ETS2). The plan also provides a long-lasting response to the related challenges faced by vulnerable households, transport users and micro-enterprises, while contributing to the clean transition.
Malta will be able to request a first payment from the Commission in the first quarter of 2027, once the implementation of the plan has started and the first results from the investments have been achieved.
