The Ministry of Environmental Protection lacks authority vis-à-vis government ministries and powerful government and private bodies, it is time to initiate a process to change this, promises Minister Ardan in a meeting with ten environmental bloggers last night in Tel Aviv. First article in the series
Last night an interesting meeting took place in Tel Aviv at the Tel Aviv district offices of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, between the Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan and about ten bloggers specializing in the field of the environment, including your faithful servant.
When I took the position I was not the greatest expert in the field, willing and open to learn but committed 100% to the subject and every day that passes I realize what an opportunity I got also because of the global schedule - helps me to meet the needs of the State of Israel in this field. I am aware of how much the public is behind, student leaders, people who want to influence but without us sharing the public - enforcement is an important thing and pursuing every offender and treating them with zero tolerance is an important message, but it will not make the revolution. The revolution will happen if all the citizens of the country realize that they need to move to a sustainable lifestyle, behavior that protects the environment and this can only happen if the ministry shares with the public as much as possible.
At the beginning of the meeting Arden surprises and says that even though it is a small office, he does not have a budget problem, on the contrary, in recent years even the small budget has not been used. Another problem of the ministry is that it does not have powers in the areas it is entrusted with - the issue of energy and transportation. Energy accounts for 40% of greenhouse gas emissions and transportation another 30% and in air pollution they are even more than 70%. We do not have the authority not to tell the Ministry of Infrastructure how to generate electricity in Israel with one reservation, in the Clean Air Law that has not yet been completed writing the regulations that will breathe life into it, some powers are transferred to us.
"That's why I decided to focus on strengthening the ministry's powers. We are going to establish a committee of experts that will recommend to the government what an environmental protection ministry should look like in terms of capabilities and powers in the modern era. The firm was established in 1988 to provide a living for Roni Milo, and transferred departments from the threshing floor and the winery. Today he is busy fighting the most powerful industries and setting economic prices for soil pollution, air pollution, etc. The economics department appointed one nice young man and these were all the capabilities of the office in the face of the challenges of greenhouse gas emissions, etc. There is no proportion between the expectations and the abilities, and therefore this is the best root treatment that we need to keep talking." Erdan mentioned that in Australia the prime minister holds the portfolio of preparing for global warming.
"I decided to emphasize issues that the public understands, that can show on a daily basis how much environmental activity contributes to the quality of life for all of us. Out of all the activities of the office, I chose five central issues - some of them out of an aspiration to bring the public closer to the issue and the other part out of an understanding of what the national priorities are
The first issue is waste separation and recycling. In this field, the State of Israel is lagging behind tremendously. The public is far ahead of its elected officials. The issue is stuck at the level of infrastructure and information. Waste in many countries is an economic resource instead of being buried in the ground in such a small country will pollute the groundwater and emit greenhouse gases, the model talks about separation at the source within two years in a significant part of the cities, with the wet part - the organic waste going to composting sites, fuel and agriculture and the dry part the industry will get access to for a fee A levy on packaging and she will be able to do with this waste whatever she sees fit: energy, recycling, production reduction. As needed.
The second priority issue is preparing for the implementation of the Clean Air Law. The previous Knesset passed the law. In Israel, in the struggle between the government and the factory owners, the situation is to the detriment of the government, the law will reverse the equation. To reach this day, you have to go through a factory, set the emission values for it, it involves a lot of regulations, personnel, field activity.
"The third issue I will emphasize is the issue of enforcement. If there are indictments against one or other elected officials or one or another capitalist it will enter the front pages. It is important to show the public that environmental crimes are treated with reverence. In three weeks, a new enforcement policy will be introduced, if the factory managers do not settle the deviation within a short period of time, this will be considered a criminal offense.
"The fourth issue is the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. The argument that the State of Israel has almost no influence because we are less than one per mille of the world's greenhouse gas emissions, and that we are an energy island at all because the neighbors do not want to cooperate and cannot be reduced... This attitude is not only disastrous from an environmental point of view, but also from an international political point of view it is very bad. From an economic point of view, a country that wants to join the OECD cannot be environmentally backward, what's more, no one knows what will happen post-Kyoto, what economic burden this will place on Israeli exports and how this could harm employment in Israel and make it difficult for Israeli exports." In this field, the consulting company McKinsey was recently appointed to analyze Israel's situation in the field of greenhouse gas emissions and propose solutions to reduce them.
"The fifth and last issue that is focused on is education. Just yesterday there was a meeting between the teams of the Ministry of Education and the Minister of Education and it was agreed upon a significant expansion of 4-5 times in the environmental education budget (from the budget of the Ministry of Environmental Protection). The budget will be distributed to kindergartens, schools, student organizations and anyone who builds the leadership of the next generation. In a new model, there is talk not only of certifying green schools, but also of monitoring the conduct of the schools by hiring an external company to monitor them. The most important project is the certification of the teachers themselves - in collaboration with the Ministry of Education. One of them will remain a school sustainability coordinator with compensation in his salary. It is important that the topic of the environment be integrated into every lesson that the teachers teach.
In the next article, what do the bloggers want from him, and what did he answer them, and what is his answer to the green organizations regarding his support for the Israel Land Administration Law
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In my opinion, all government offices should be closed, and then a committee of experts should be brought in to recommend to us the opening of necessary offices.
Good to hear that something is being done at all in this office.
It's time.
And act quickly.
I'm not like most people, I think of the next few years not as just any years, I think of them as a limited time.
Mr. Minister, there is an inflated mechanism of many people in your position who have nothing to do. You must fundamentally change the structure of the office and remove many unnecessary managers who were appointed from Shlomono people.
Your office does not respond to citizens' inquiries.
There are no suitable professionals for enforcement!!!!! How are you going to enforce???
I think the most about fighting all polluters and tightening the standards - especially in the polluting refineries and petrochemicals in the north and in Ramat Hovav in the Negev