IUED is calling on the government of Israel to generate a national response to global warming without further delay.
In July 2007, IUED released The Forecast is in our Hands, a professional report based on the scientific findings of the UN’s Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change. Adapting the IPCC model scenarios to the local context, IUED’s report projects for Israel alarmingly hotter summers, drier winters, coastal flooding, desertification and depletion of water resources, and increased public health threats.
Tzipi Iser Itzik, IUED’s executive director, points out that Israel is only now beginning to relate to climate change.
“To date, the State of Israel has no climate change law, no targets for halting or stabilizing greenhouse gas emissions, and very few economic policies or incentives for moderating environmental factors that contribute to global warming”.
With less than a decade left before the projected tipping point beyond which climate change will be irreversible, the global community is mobilizing. Industrialized countries are acknowledging their contributions to climate change, organizing comprehensive legislative and policy responses, and 
reaching out to poorer nations most vulnerable to the frequent storms, floods, droughts and health threats that are the consequences of global warming.
Why should a small nation like Israel join the global effort to mitigate climate change, given the myriad environmental problems on the local front?
IUED believes that there are compelling moral, environmental, economic and national security justifications for Israel to join the global effort. The IPCC scenarios project that Israel will also suffer the impacts of climate change.
“IUED believes that Israel has a moral duty to join the ranks of responsible nations rising to the global challenge,” notes Izer Itzik. “Israel had led the field in innovations in irrigation technologies, desert agriculture, forestation in arid regions, and solar energy. We should be using this expertise to advance global solutions instead of behaving as if the global climate crisis is nothing to do with us.”
Needed: a timely national response
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IUED calls on the State of Israel to take steps to develop a national response to climate change that includes:
· A modern energy economy that moves towards energy independence, energy efficiency and reduced consumption in public and private sectors.
· A switch to an efficient mass transportation system and the use of cleaner fuels.
· An advanced waste management policy that promotes reduction, reuse and recycling of resources.
· Integration of green construction appropriate for a carbon-reduced economy within national planning frameworks.
· Sustainable agriculture and water use geared towards energy saving and re-use of water resources.
· Integration of the costs of carbon emissions from into all national policies, planning processes and the tax structure.
· Development of economic incentives for technologies to reduce emissions and aid carbon capture and storage (CCS).
· Use of targeted subsidies and investment in education and marketing to overcome market failures in infrastructure, transport, electricity and water consumption that hinder shifts to an energy efficient economy.
· Establishment of a national greenhouse gas emissions inventory. |
While Israel’s burgeoning clean tech sector is gearing up to climate change, the government has yet to signal a concerted response.
“Israel needs to respond to the challenge of climate change by providing a legislative framework and economic incentives that will put Israel at the forefront of the global struggle,” says Iser Itzik.
IUED believes that a timely national Israeli response will provide new business opportunities, encourage new technologies, and provide new jobs. In parallel, a concerted program will improve local environmental conditions.
IUED’s report recommends that Israel should adopt the European Union's approach and commit to reducing carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, using 2000 as a baseline, and by 60% by 2050, taking into account the anticipated growth in population, rising standard of living and the steps required to adapt to projected warming.
Reducing Israel’s greenhouse gas emissions will catalyze long overdue changes in how we manage our water, air and power generation, and strengthen national security by reducing our near-total dependence on imported fossil fuels. Israel should be a party to all international frameworks and initiatives relating to emissions trading, technological deployments and establishment of energy efficient standards.
Iser Itzik: “There are a few short years in which we can work with the global community for the benefit of all. We need to start tackling climate change right now.”
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