Member of Knesset Yael Cohen Faran concluded the meeting "We heard that the previous plan would not have brought us to meet the goals even if it had been implemented to the end. Today we are already delaying the determination of an action plan to achieve reduction targets.
The Subcommittee for Renewable Energies and Oversight of the Implementation of the Paris Conference Decisions chaired by MK Yael Cohen Faran (the Zionist camp) met on Wednesday. On the agenda was monitoring the government's decisions on reducing greenhouse gases - using technological tools. The meeting was attended by MK Eitan Broushi (the Zionist camp) and representatives from the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the Prime Minister's Office, the Ministry of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water, the Directorate for the Promotion of Oil Substitutes, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Transportation and Road Safety, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, experts from academia .
Member of Knesset Yael Cohen Faran opened the meeting and said "The global attempt to deal with the problem of the greenhouse effect and climate change has gone up a notch in the past year compared to the previous attempts and historically has produced a binding agreement that includes a very large international financial commitment for the implementation of the decisions. The State of Israel committed in the recent past in a number of government decisions on reduction targets with a number of programs, the main program was frozen, canceled and today we are in the process of formulating a new program which we will find out shortly about its status. I will seek to understand today what can be learned and what will be learned from the existing program, in the formation of the new program, and how a better program can be created as soon as possible.
At this point, I am happy to announce that next month on Earth Day on April 22, the Minister of Environmental Protection will sign the Paris Agreement as the government's representative at the United Nations. This will make the goals set by Israel binding"
A large number of important parties dealing with Israel's commitment, as part of the global community, to meet the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions participated in the committee meeting. Among them, Ms. Hila Binish, CEO of the Israeli Council for Green Building, who said, "Green building is a key element in Israel's ability to meet the goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and climate change assessments, as embodied, among other things, in the government's decision that has not yet been implemented in practice. We must see this component as a one-time opportunity not only to meet the goals we set for ourselves, but also to create a healthier and better quality living environment here. The way to do this is clear - the government must promote the standard for green construction in a more extensive way than the existing one and implement it in all existing new construction, with an emphasis on public construction, including government companies, government ministries, educational institutions and housing for the general public."
A representative of the Green Trend organization said, "Green Trend welcomes the frequent convening of the committee. MK Yael Cohen Faran together with civil society organizations are exerting their full weight in order to remove the barriers preventing the promotion of renewable energy and energy efficiency in Israel. Unfortunately, the Ministry of Energy and its head, MK Yuval Steinitz, are preventing Israel from moving towards a smart and efficient energy economy and forcing a polluting coal and oil industry upon us. We all hope that with the help of the committee headed by MK Faran we will be able to promote effective policy tools in order to help entrepreneurs, the economy and the country move towards renewable energy while maximizing energy efficiency."
Member of Knesset Yael Cohen Faran concluded the meeting "We heard that the previous plan would not have brought us to meet the goals even if it had been implemented to the end. Today we are already delaying the determination of an action plan to achieve reduction targets. From here I call on the Electricity Authority, the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Energy to give support to promote the formulation of an applicable plan for significant goals. A large part of the failure lies in the failure to introduce means of implementation and control according to the plan you will establish. I will appeal to the Prime Minister to place the plan at the top of his priority order and to see to the monitoring of the implementation of the plan when it is determined and to create mechanisms to resolve inter-ministerial conflicts. The goals set are low and what defines the ambitious plan as ambitious is placing a price on carbon and I call on the Ministry of Finance to price carbon emissions so that additional tools to reduce emissions become economically viable.
The industry should not be against these plans, it is important for their streamlining and I am calling on the Association of Manufacturers and the Ministry of Economy, the issue is not an issue of the "greens". I understand that the freeze and cancellation of the previous program during which it hurt you, but I expect you to be a driving force in the process. We have seen that the international investment world is leading to a reduction in energy consumption and Israeli industrialists who want to export should take this global trend into account. It is not possible for us to back down on our decisions and ease the demands"
