Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will lead Israel’s delegation to the UN climate change conference in Glasgow at the end of the month, his office announced on Friday, confirming a Times of Israel report earlier this week.
The prime minister’s office said in a statement that Bennett would fly to Scotland on October 31 to “present Israel’s initiatives on climate change and hold a series of meetings with foreign leaders”.
Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg and Energy Minister Karine Elhrer will also participate, according to the statement.
The conference is scheduled for October 31-November 12, with world leaders expected to attend over the first two days, including US President Joe Biden and the UK’s Queen Elizabeth II.
Bennett was invited Attended by British Prime Minister Boris Johnson when the two spoke shortly after the formation of Israel’s government in July.
Bennett’s visit will take place when the government reaches the final stages of passing the state budget before the November 14 deadline.
Failure to approve funds for 2021–2022 by that date would automatically dissolve Parliament and trigger elections. The budget includes a special allocation for the first time to fight climate change.
Environment Minister Tamar Zandberg, left, and Energy Minister Karin Elharer (Flash90)
But the prime minister probably doesn’t want a repeat of the UN General Assembly last month, when he attended the final days when almost all world leaders had already gone home. Bennett enough When he addressed the assembly, he made no mention of climate change.
While some members of his coalition are pushing for a harsher response to climate change that includes emergency legislation, Bennett himself favors a pragmatic approach that addresses the need to balance the economy, cost of living, personal liberty and defense. takes into account.
A senior official at the time said he believed Israel’s economy was too small to have any major impact on the climate, but that Israel’s technology and innovation could potentially help point the world in the right direction. see as.
At the 26th UN climate change conference, known as COP26, governments will seek to meet commitments to limit the warming of the Earth to a maximum of 1.5 °C, as set out in the 2015 Paris climate agreement. had gone.
The unrecognized Bedouin villages around the Ramat Hovav industrial area in southern Israel suffer from high levels of air pollution from nearby chemical evaporation ponds and an Israel Electric Corporation power plant. December 28, 2017. (ie nav nav/flash90)
However, environmentalists worry that the meeting will create policies that are not enough to reduce carbon emissions and slow the warming of the planet.
The event also focuses on raising funding to fight climate change and protect vulnerable communities and natural habitats.
According to a report released in August, Earth’s climate is warming so much that in a decade the temperature will probably warm to a level that world leaders have tried to prevent, which the United Nations has called “code red for humanity”. ” Said.
The official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, which called climate change “disproportionately caused by human activity”, produced more accurate and warmer forecasts for the 21st century than the last time it released in 2013.
In the wake of the report, Zandberg said It demonstrated that Israel should declare climate change a “strategic threat” in order to properly prepare for the challenges facing the country.
