Ministers again delay climate bill discussion, vote

The Ministerial Committee on Legislation again delays a debate and vote on a climate bill, as the finance and energy ministries persist in their demands for emission reduction targets to be non-binding and the Environmental Protection Ministry insists they must be to have any value.

The government pledged in its coalition agreement to pass a climate law that would commit it to cutting global warming emissions by 50% by 2030. That raised the bar from 27% included in a climate bill that passed its Knesset first reading in July last year under the previous government’s Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg.

This stated desire for an improved goal was given as the reason — or excuse — not to vote to continue the Zandberg bill, but to submit a new one from scratch. But interministerial wrangling has meant that no progress is being made.