Knesset panel advances climate bill over strong objections by opposition, environmentalists

Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel's environment reporter

The Knesset Interior and Environmental Protection Committee approves a climate bill for its final — second and third — readings in the Knesset plenum, after almost six hours of debate.

Opposition lawmakers decry what they call capitulation to the Finance Ministry, which has worked to veto any binding commitments. They particularly single out for criticism the authority given to the government to change emission reduction targets and even to delay climate action for three years after the bill becomes law, without approval from the plenum or a Knesset committee.

The draft now requires that the government commit to cutting emissions by 27% by 2030, down from 30% in the version that passed the first reading in April.

Committee chairman Yaakov Asher insists that the 30% was a “fake” target that nobody believed would be achieved and says a climate act that may not be perfect is better than no act at all.

He says he has spent hundreds of hours on the text, and that the committee has “done its maximum to commit the system” to act.

He adds: “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.”

Amit Bracha, CEO of the environmental advocacy organization Adam Teva and Din, describes the bill as “a mark of Cain on the forehead of the most anti-environmental government in history.”

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