Just 25% of planned steps to cut emissions completed by ministries – report
Environmental Protection Ministry’s annual update on implementation of 241 policy measures is latest in string of reports slamming government’s inaction on climate change
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
![View of the Orot Rabin power plant at Sdot Yam beach, central Israel, April 11, 2023. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90) View of the Orot Rabin power plant at Sdot Yam beach, central Israel, April 11, 2023. (Yossi Aloni/Flash90)](https://static.timesofisrael.com/www/uploads/2024/01/orot-rabin-640x400.jpg)
An annual monitoring report published Sunday shows that only one in four policy steps stemming from a government decision two years ago to reduce gases contributing to global warming and air pollution has been implemented.
It is the latest in a string of reports criticizing the current and former governments’ inaction on climate change.
The report by the Environmental Protection Ministry said that of 241 planned policy measures, 25% had been implemented, 33% were only at the initial stages of being put into practice, work had not begun on 8%, and no updates were even received on 34%.
It went on to say that passing a climate law and introducing carbon taxes were critical measures that were being delayed.
The report charged that plans to close the four oldest and most polluting coal-fired units at the Orot Rabin power station in central Hadera and to implement projects for energy efficiency, sustainable transportation, and landfill waste reduction were also lagging behind.
To fulfill the requirements of the 2008 Clean Air Act and Israel’s commitment to the international community to slash economy-wide net global warming gas emissions (GHG) by 27% by 2030, the government decided to update the national plan to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases in 2022.
Steps were ordered in the sectors of industry, electricity production, transportation, agriculture, waste and refrigerant gases.
But according to Sunday’s report, there is “low implementation” of measures in all these areas.
Out of NIS 6.7 billion ($1.84 million) promised from the state budget, only around NIS 4 billion ($1.1 billion) has been approved or used.
In last year’s annual report, the ministry forecast that Israel would reduce its global warming emissions by just 12% by 2030, far below the 27% it promised the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
The document showed that if trends continue, only 19% of energy would be generated by renewable sources by the end of the decade, compared with an official goal of 30%.
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In his 2021 report on climate issues, State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman criticized successive governments for making decisions but failing to implement or properly budget them.
In a follow-up to that report published in March, Englman noted little progress had been made.
He said that successive governments — led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for 15 of the past 16 years — had performed poorly in reducing global warming emissions, preparing for the consequences of climate change, managing economic and financial aspects of the crisis, and demonstrating the required levels of governance.
“All this stands in stark contrast to the inherent risks posed by climate change, which threaten our very existence,” Englman warned.
Echoing many of the state comptroller’s complaints, the OECD last year found that Israel was behind on its targets to reduce global warming emissions, had increased subsidies for fossil fuels over the past decade, was failing to provide financial incentives to encourage recycling waste rather than burying it in the ground, and was still exposing its citizens to levels of pollution from particulate matter that were among the highest in the developed world.
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The 2015 Paris Accord, to which Israel is a signatory, seeks to cap global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6˚F), and preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7˚F), compared to pre-industrial levels.
According to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, global warming has already exceeded the 1.5˚C limit for a whole year.