High Court orders state to update plan for slashing air pollution

The High Court orders the state to approve an updated national program for cutting and preventing air pollution that should have been passed in 2018, and to report back to it by the end of February.

The order came in response to a petition submitted by the environmental advocacy organization, Adam Teva V’Din, which was instrumental in getting the Clean Air Act passed in 2008. The law, which came into force in 2011, mandated the creation of a national program to deal with air pollution, which had to be updated every five years.

The first program was approved in 2013, but the second — drafted by the end of 2017 — remained on the desk of then environmental protection minister Ze’ev Elkin until the country entered a prolonger period of political deadlock.

The Environmental Protection Ministry promised the court that a new program will be approved by the government within the next two months.

In a statement issued after the court hearing, the ministry says it had begun to work on a comprehensive update of the plan, but was unable to proceed because of the lack of a state budget. Knesset members approved a state budget last month, allowing the plan to advance.

The programs are drawn up by an inter-ministerial steering committee to ensure that all kinds of air pollution are included.