Israel Steps Forward as COP26 Approaches
In recent news, the State of Israel has decided to join the UN Climate Change Conference, being held in Glasgow. Representatives of the country will be making an appearance to show a handful of strategies that the relevant authorities have devised to deal with environmental issues. Moreover, various innovative technologies will also be displayed at the conference, developed to help combat the rising threat of global warming. This was announced by Galit Cohen herself, the Director-General of the Environmental Protection Ministry.
For a long time, environmental issues in the country have not received the importance that they should have, as stated by a report of the State Comptroller. However, according to Cohen, once the plan to tackle issues related to climate change is approved by the relevant government authorities, Israel is going to be prioritizing the environment.
She went on to say that the events that took place last summer in the Jewish State, as well as across the globe, have shown that climate change is real. In her words, the country cannot wait for the next generation to deal with it, nor burden them to find solutions. The minister added that if people want to reduce the repercussions of global warming, then they must take action now. She urged the government to understand just how important it is to focus on the environment.
Over the last couple of months, various countries, along with Germany and the US, have experienced some severe events of climate change. These led to many deaths and much devastation. In addition, Israel also saw severe forest fires. Therefore, the ‘100 Action Items’ plan was devised. According to this, various policy tools will be implemented related to energy, transportation, waste management, and industrial production. However, these policies will require cooperation from no less than 14 ministries. The budget assigned to this plan is of NIS 725 million, which will be spread across the different ministries. But this requires approval in the next week from the relevant state authorities.
In its report, the State Comptroller criticized a bunch of ministries for not having an action plan ready up until now. Furthermore, the outline encourages ministries to come up with technological innovation related to the topic. Cohen added that the proposed outline is supposed to help the country meet its target of bringing about a fall in greenhouse-gas emissions. She said that the relevant authorities are hoping to bring a 27% reduction by the year 2030, and 85% by the year 2050. The plan also consists of several initiatives to deal with emergencies, such as floods and forest fires. In addition, it has been devised in a way to support municipalities and aid them in improving energy infrastructure.
The implementation of the outline has been set to allow it to make the battle with climate change a matter of utmost importance, as well as of national security. Cohen believes that Israel needs to consider multiple scenarios with respect to climate emergencies. In her words, the country needs to prepare for them, much like it would prepare for war.
