Knesset panel paves way for controversial climate bill to go to final Knesset votes
Bill, which passed first reading in April, has no budget, allows government to change emission cut targets and delay climate action for up to three years without Knesset okay
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter
The Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee on Tuesday approved a draft climate bill for second and third reading in the Knesset that has no budget and is so non-binding that the Justice Ministry said it could not be cited by those wanting to petition the government over lack of climate action.
Opposition lawmakers lambasted the bill, saying it was even weaker than previous drafts.
But committee chairman Yaakov Asher (United Torah Judaism) insisted that an imperfect bill that all ministries could agree on was better than no bill at all.
The version passed on Tuesday reflects the powerful Finance Ministry’s objection to anchoring any climate targets in legislation.
In March, the state comptroller said officials were so frightened of being sued for failure to meet climate targets that they preferred government decisions on climate goals to which Israel could aspire rather than binding targets in law.
The lack of any budget also raises a question mark over implementation.
Asher resisted calls to change a clause that exempts the poorest local authorities from having to plan for the effects of climate change if they can’t afford to do so.
Lower goals
A previous version of the bill, which said Israel would cut emissions by 30 percent by 2030, passed in April.
The draft approved Tuesday lowers this to 27% and also allows the government in most cases to change the climate goals and years by which the goals must be reached, with approval of the committee. (One exception was that it could not change using 2015 emissions as a baseline.)
It authorizes the government to delay action on emissions cuts by up to three years, without either Knesset or Knesset committee approval, so long as the Internal Affairs and Environment Committee is informed.
The bill orders ministries to plan for emissions cuts in their fields of operation, but allows ministers to request exemption, except for the environmental protection, energy, transportation, interior, agriculture, economy, housing, health, and defense ministries. (The latter two were added to the draft that was approved).
This potentially exempts the Finance Ministry from taking emissions into account in fields of activity under its control, which may soon include waste — a key source of methane emissions.
The bill also obliges ministries to create plans for adapting to climate change. The previous draft included the same list of ministries that could not request exemption, but this was dropped so that now any minister may be excused.
The bill makes no mention of renewable energy, energy saving, or cutting fossil fuels — all critical tools for reducing the emissions that drive climate change.
As in the bill that passed first reading, programs for emissions cuts and for adapting to climate change will have to be accompanied by cost-benefit analyses, and opinions from the energy minister, the Finance Ministry’s chief economist, and the head of the budget division.
Differences of opinion between the energy and environmental protection ministries will be brought before the prime minister.
Asher managed to retain one clause despite Finance Ministry objections — that cost-benefit analyses take account of the cost of doing nothing, and the “indirect costs” (to the environment and public health) of a particular move.
The bill also determines that government projects with potentially significant implications for emissions or adaptation to climate change must be accompanied by a climate risk survey. But it provides no details on the kinds of projects for which the surveys would be needed, and gives the state two years to determine the format of such a survey from the date that the law enters into force.
During the nearly six-hour debate, two lawmakers from the Yesh Atid party, Yorai Lahav-Hertzanu and Matti Sarfatti Harcavi, constituted the main opposition. They tried unsuccessfully to cancel the clause allowing the government to delay climate action for three years, and to secure a budgetary commitment.
Prof. Alon Tal, a former Yesh Atid MK, veteran environmental campaigner and head of public policy at Tel Aviv University, compared what he called the bill’s disappointing target to the pledges of four countries to reduce emissions and to do so compared with a 1990 baseline — Denmark (70% by 2030), Germany (65% by 2030 and 88% by 2040), Finland (net zero emissions by 2035) and the UK (68% by 2030).
Yair Golan’s Democratic Party, formed by the merger of the Labor and Meretz parties, both deeply involved with environmental issues in the past, was not present.
Asher, the committee chair, insisted that the original clause specifying that 30% of emissions would be cut by 2030 was “aimed at “calming the masses” but was “fake” because nobody expected it to be met. He said he wanted a law that could be implemented.
In May 2023, the Environmental Protection Ministry predicted that Israel would reduce its global warming emissions by just 12 percent by 2030.
Asher defended the bill, on which he said he had spent hundreds of hours.
The committee had “done its maximum to commit the system” to action, he said, adding, “Maybe we could have done better, but the enemy of the good is the best. I think the result is excellent and history will be the judge.”
Lahav-Hertzanu said the law lacked the urgency needed to face a climate crisis that was already wreaking havoc with record temperatures and extreme events such as flooding. The clause allowing the government to delay climate action by three years sent “a problematic message” to the ministries that business could continue as usual.
He added, “Nothing will stop the government from coming in 2032 and asking for another delay.”
The most poignant moment came when Shai Zion, 15, a schoolgirl and activist with the Youth Climate Protest, broke into tears and told the meeting, “I go to bed feeling I have no future. I don’t think this law is good enough for me to continue living here.”
Amit Bracha, CEO of the environmental advocacy organization Adam Teva V’Din, described the bill as “a mark of Cain on the forehead of the most anti-environmental government in history.”
The bill is expected to come up for approval at the Ministerial Committee on Legislation on Sunday. If passed there, as expected, it will be prepared for the votes in the Knesset plenum.
