NIF Grantees Will Monitor Israel’s Implementation of the Bali Agreement

December 18, 2007

Israeli environmental NGO representatives who attended last week’s conference in Bali, where an agreement was reached on global warming, are determined to ensure that Israel plays its role in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

“It is our intention to keep watch in order to make certain that all the wonderful declarations at Bali are translated into deeds,” said Tzipi Iser Itzik, Executive Director of the Israel Union for Environmental Defense (IUED), which was founded by NIF and continues to receive NIF support through the Green Environment Fund (GEF). “Israel can also profit from the subject and we expect the country to become a leading power in confronting climate change by developing technological innovations.”

Iser Itzik was part of a 15-person official Israeli delegation to Bali led by MK Ofer Pines, Chairman of the Knesset’s Internal Affairs and Environment Committee, which included both government officials and representatives of NGOs such as IUED.

“As well as participating in discussions with our NGO counterparts from around the world,” explained Tammy Gannot, IUED’s Legal Advisor who was also part of the Israeli delegation to Indonesia, “we were also able to take the opportunity to spend time with senior Israeli government officials and pressure them on the implementation of the new agreement.”

Also in Indonesia was Gil Yaakov, Executive Director of Green Course, which develops local campaigns and leadership, and is also supported by GEF. “Israel can and must make its energy grid more efficient by reducing demand for electricity and promoting renewable energy projects,” he said.

Israel has 11.02 per capita CO2 emissions, a similar level to most Western European countries, but half that of the United States. With energy production and transport the two areas where CO2 emissions can be most easily reduced, Israel’s green movement is pressuring the government to speed up its program of converting electricity power stations from coal to natural gas and to further expand its railway development program. Solar energy organizations like IUED and Green Course would also like to see Israel investing more in the development of renewable energy technologies, which could also become profitable high-tech industries.   

The Bali agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25 to 40 percent by 2020 does not bind Israel, which was not defined as a developed nation in the 1997 Kyoto Protocols of Climate Change.

“We expect this anomaly to be corrected when the Copenhagen Protocol is signed in Denmark in 2009,” explained Gannot. “One of the functions of IUED is to ensure that Israel’s status is changed. At the same time we intend pressing the Israeli government to stick to the commitments before 2009 as if it were defined as a developed country.”