{"id":272,"date":"2022-03-20T09:16:08","date_gmt":"2022-03-20T09:16:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alontal.brandale.co.il\/?p=272"},"modified":"2022-05-25T12:26:22","modified_gmt":"2022-05-25T12:26:22","slug":"addressing-the-climate-crisis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/?p=272&lang=en","title":{"rendered":"Addressing the Climate Crisis"},"content":{"rendered":"
    \n
  1. The world is getting warmer. So is Israel. Only more so. Indeed, Israel and its neighbors are considered to be a \u201cclimate hot spot\u201d:\u00a0 The planet\u2019s temperatures have increased by one degree during the past decades; Tel Aviv is 2 degrees warmer. Sea level rise on average is up 2.5 mm. a year; in Israel it is closer to 10 mm.\u00a0 Periodic droughts have been significantly greater here than other countries.\u00a0 The crisis requires urgent action. Now.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. For too long, Israel took a path of least resistance on this global crisis. After signing the Climate Change Convention in 1992 and the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015, very little was done in terms of reducing overall greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to the anticipated impacts like increased frequency of forest fires, flooding, heat waves and droughts.<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Since entering office, Israel\u2019s new \u201cgovernment of change\u201d has lived up to its name and started to move beyond lip services: massive investments in renewable energy, public transportation, electric car infrastructure \u2013 even a carbon tax have been adopted. \u00a0 Most importantly, by 2050, on the eve of the Glasgow summit the government committed to \u201ccarbon neutrality\u201d or 100% reduction in net greenhouse gas emissions within 30 years.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. These new measures are worthy of praise. But they are not enough.\u00a0 Israel will not be able to attain its long-term emission reduction targets unless it takes a series of additional steps and radically changes the way we produce and utilize energy.\u00a0 Even before taking any concrete measures, the climate narrative needs to change. Let\u2019s starts with climate education in the schools; promotional programs and leading by example.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Methane from solid waste disposal is a major contributor to global warming. Israel\u2019s recycling rate remains an abysmal 24%. While Israel\u2019s environmental ministry has set a recycling goal for 2030 of 51%, that will be difficult to attain with the quantity of garbage produced by Israelis growing each year parallel to population growth, at a rate of close to 2%.\u00a0 Tipping fees and investment in recycling infrastructure need to be increased significantly.\u00a0 Israel should set a goal of reaching 10% garbage burial by 2035\u2026 and then do even better!<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. Renewable energy levels have increased in the past years, by the end of 2021, the percentage of clean electricity still hovers at a mere 10%, at a time when countries like Denmark are already well over 60%.\u00a0 Israel\u2019s government set a \u201c30% by 2030\u201d renewable electricity goal. Given improvements and reduced pricing in solar energy production and storage, this goal is too modest.\u00a0 Recent research suggests that a 250 -billion shekel investment could provide a local infrastructure sufficient to generate 100% renewable electricity.\u00a0 The United States has set such a goal by 2035; Israel should too.<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. Individual behavior and consumption patterns contribute to the collective carbon footprint.\u00a0 Taxes have proven an effective way to change individual behavior.\u00a0 The recently passed carbon taxes in Israel are limited to fuels. They should be expanded to include other products such as: beef and meat products, produce flown into the country, air travel and other high carbon activities. At the same time, subsidies for green buildings, public transport, bicycles and other low carbon activities should be offered.<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. At present, there is very little coordinated activity for a national climate adaptation program.\u00a0 The government needs to create a centralized agency with funding and authorities to see that the most critical initiatives are prioritized to reduce the anticipated fires, flooding and heat waves. A recent cabinet decision to dramatically expand tree planting in cities for shading is a good example of something we need to do today to prepare for the dramatic increase in temperatures ahead.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  9. A climate law is an essential tool for coordinating activities and ratcheting down emissions. While passage of such legislation is part of the new government\u2019s platform, disagreements between related ministries have delayed its passage. It is time that the Prime Minister\u2019s office intervene to ensure that an ambitious statute is passed without delay.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  10. It is extremely difficult to Israel\u2019s reduce collective carbon footprint when population is growing at a rate of 2% a year.\u00a0 Every new child is born with a legitimate carbon footprint. This means that even if we successful cut back 10% emissions per capita, over the next decade, total emissions will increase by 10%.\u00a0 Demographic stability needs to be integrated into the national discourse over climate policy.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The world is getting warmer. So is Israel. Only more so. Indeed, Israel and its neighbors are considered to be a \u201cclimate hot spot\u201d:\u00a0 The planet\u2019s temperatures have increased by one degree during the past decades; Tel Aviv is 2 degrees warmer. Sea level rise on average is up 2.5 mm. a year; in Israel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-agenda"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1815,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/1815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alontal.org.il\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}