A week before the start of crucial UN climate talks in Scotland and two days before the release of a damning State Comptroller’s report on Israel’s handling of the climate crisis, the government on Sunday bowed to the Ministry of Environment Protection’s demand that climate change be tackled. One must be declared. issue of national security.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that climate change would now be included in strategic threat planning and added to the scenarios for which the security establishment, the military and the Home Front should plan.
This was a major demand not only of the environmental lobby but also of a small group Specialist in Security and Diplomacy.
The call formed one of several policy steps enshrined in a national plan to tackle the climate crisis (in Hebrew) which was placed before the cabinet on Sunday by the Ministry of Environment Protection.
Another, calling for support to accelerate climate tech development, was also approved without a budget.
But several key demands of the measures being adopted in the developed world were missing from the Prime Minister’s statement.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett leads a cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem on October 24, 2021. (Yov Dudkevich/Pool)
among them is climate law, which was prepared in April, and is being put on hold due to objections from the ministries of energy and finance; a carbon tax; Work with financial regulators to ensure that the impacts of climate change are weighed before any investments are made; and integration into the pricing of fossil fuels, known as indirect costs – to society, public health and the environment.
If indirect costs are included in the pricing of oil and gas, those fossil fuels will be exposed as already more expensive than renewable energy sources such as the sun.
Environmental organizations ridiculed the Prime Minister’s announcement.
“Shame on the government,” Maritime security organization Zalul wrote on Twitter. With the state comptroller about to release a damning report about Israel’s lack of preparedness for the climate crisis, Zalul said, the country had no real achievements to present at the UN conference in Glasgow, which wants That global warming should not exceed 1.5. degrees above pre-industrial era temperatures.
View of Haifa’s oil refineries and other industrial areas on May 5, 2017. (ie nav/flash90/file)
“Instead of climate legislation and concrete action plans, the government is making several statements that have no backing, no government agreement and no implementation plan,” Zalul alleged.
Greenpeace Israel wrote on Twitter that “Israel has failed to meet its meager climate goals, and without a binding climate law, it is unclear what is about to change.
“Government program is a collection of no good intentions” [financial] support, as long as the gas and oil industry continues to expand its activities in the country with encouragement from the ministries of energy and finance,” Greenpeace said.
“The science is clear. A country that continues to grow the fossil fuel industry and is not committed to reducing nearly half of its greenhouse gas emissions [as called for by UN Secretary-General António Guterres] Earth by 2030 is part of the problem.”
Young Israelis striking for action on climate change in the Carmel region of Haifa in northern Israel on October 23, 2021. (Emergency Headquarters for Climate and Ecology, Israel)
Strike for the Israel of the Future, also on Twitter, addressed Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, saying, “Tamar, this climate package is an attempt to whitewash [the fact that] A climate law is not being implemented. Why are you not raging about the power ministry and finance ministry’s decision to torpedo the climate law? Why aren’t you shouting about it from every possible platform? Why are you giving up on our future?”
The Prime Minister’s Office issued a press release saying that the government has approved four proposals.
These include promoting clean, low-carbon transport, a substantial shift to using public transport, and electrification of that transport; Rapid creation of infrastructure and removal of barriers to renewable energy; fostering innovation in climate technology; and support to help industry, commerce and local government cut their global warming emissions.
Buses on the public transport route in Jerusalem on March 16, 2020. (Yontan Sindel/Flash90)
The only resolution to which the budget was attached – NIS 725 million ($226 million) was final, and it was unclear how much of that amount is actually new.
“The climate crisis is one of the major issues on the world’s agenda,” Bennett said in a statement. “It concerns the lives of all of us, and also the lives of our children and grandchildren. We in Israel are obliged to deal with it; it is at the core of our existence.”
According to Press release From the Prime Minister’s Office, a task force is to be set up, headed by the Director General of the PMO, to take forward “infrastructure projects of national importance” to help transform the country into a low-carbon economy. These infrastructure projects will be added to the multi-year infrastructure development plan published annually by the PMO to strengthen coordination and synchronization.
Yair Pines, Director General of the Prime Minister’s Office, arrives at a cabinet meeting at the PMO in Jerusalem on September 5, 2021. (Jonatan Sindel/Flash90)
One of the task force comprising the Accountant General and Attorney General of the Ministry of Finance will focus on accelerating climate technologies by removing regulatory barriers to research, development, application and assimilation of technologies to reduce GHG emissions. The Director General of the PMO will work with other countries to arrange funding for climate technology development through joint research projects and “pooling of resources” from various ministries.
A new Prime Minister’s Committee on Climate Technology and Innovation will be established under the chairmanship of Bennett, with the participation of director generals from the PMO, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Ministry of Economy and Industry and the Ministry of Agriculture. With senior representatives from government, private sector, academia and third sector organisations.
Another task force will focus on policy steps to prepare the country for natural disasters and extreme events such as fires and floods, work on solutions and remove bottlenecks.
Firefighters try to put out a fire near Givat Yerim near Jerusalem on August 16, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash 90)
The establishment of an Inter-Ministerial Forum for Renewable Energy was also approved, which will be chaired by Energy Minister Karin Elharer. Its first meeting will be held on Monday.
The Ministry of Energy approved, among other things, the adoption of international standards to upgrade infrastructure for electric vehicles, reduce emissions in urban areas, cut pollution from ships, and allow hydrogen refueling stations (although no No money) announced a flurry of measures. .