A protest was held in Valletta on Saturday warning about the devastating impact of climate change, especially in the wake of reports detailing Malta's poor performance at emissions.

Holding placards, the protesters met near the Tritons fountain to urge the government to act against climate change, even if Malta was a small country. The event was organised by Alternattiva Demokratika.

The European Environment Agency recently published a report which shows that Malta will be unable to reach its 2020 effort sharing targets. Malta is the only country in the EU which has consistently missed its effort sharing targets since 2013.

Carmel Cacopardo, AD chairman said the changeover of energy generation from HFO to gas was a positive step. However gas is considered as a transition fuel, in transit in the path to renewable energy generation. Also, Malta's problem will escalate further due to the astronomic increase in the number of cars on the roads.

"Unfortunately, instead of investing in sustainable transport, government has embarked on a massive programme of further development of the road infrastructure which will only end up in encouraging more cars on our roads," he said.

Read: Malta again fails emission test, has to pay "hundreds of thousands"

The organisers warned that global warning will lead to heat deaths, coastal flooding, water scarcity, extreme weather events, attraction of invasive species and loss in marine biodiversity.

Asked whether it would review its long-term climate targets in view of the new report, an environment ministry spokesman said that while the government fully supported the report’s conclusions, it believed the solution could only be achieved at a global, not national level.

Times of Malta reported last year that in Bulgaria a solar farm or some other mystery green project was being funded by Maltese taxpayers because the island kept missing its targets.