Prime Minister Robert Abela and his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni pulled out of the Libya Energy & Economic Summit over the weekend, both of whom were due to give keynote speeches to the audience of energy and fossil-fuel stakeholders. The Shift contacted the prime minister’s spokesperson, Edward Montebello, who said the Minister for Energy, Miriam Dalli, attended and “the PM had other engagements.”Abela was scheduled to participate in the launch ceremony, giving a keynote speech alongside Meloni and Libyan Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibeh. The summit was billed publicly as focussing on renewable energies, with the Maltese government set to discuss trade and commercial ties and explore the feasibility of a proposed renewable energy interconnector project. This would establish a solar photovoltaic park in Libya that would supply Malta with energy. However, the agenda was packed full of representatives from fossil fuel and energy producers, including PetroGas, Eni, Tamoil, Total Energies, and Repsol.

Source: Libya Today January 16, 2024 12:23 UTC