Bill to cut greenhouse gas emissions nothing but hot air

Highly unlikely Israel can reduce emissions at all by 2025, government reps say.

By EHUD ZION WALDOKS
air pollution 224 88 (photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
air pollution 224 88
(photo credit: Ariel Jerozolimski [file])
Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee Chair Ophir Paz-Pines (Labor) was forced to remove all goals for reducing greenhouse gases (GHG) from his proposed bill on Monday after government representatives unanimously agreed they were unattainable. Paz-Pines had set goals for a 25 percent reduction by 2025 and a 50% reduction by 2050 in comparison to 2000 levels. Those numbers mirror aspirations elsewhere in the world. However, government representatives said it was highly unlikely the country would ever get emissions levels to zero, rather they would continue to increase by 2025. The Environmental Protection Ministry said Monday that without a national plan to combat it, they expected GHG emissions to increase by 63% by 2025. While Israel's contribution to global climate change is minimal given the small size of the country, there are ramifications for Israel's status as a First World rather than Third World country. Paz-Pines argued, as he has many times in the past, that climate change was an issue of paramount importance around the world and Israel could either step up and be part of the debate or be dragged down kicking and screaming. Israel could either act like a developed country or a developing country and then be treated accordingly, he said. While Paz-Pines half jokingly said during the session that he wanted Israel to be the first country to legislate a law to reduce GHG, ministry representatives argued that the proposed bill was "putting the cart before the horse." Worldwide goals have not yet been established and are not expected to be declared until the end of 2009 when a replacement treaty for the Kyoto Protocol is decided upon, Environmental Protection Minister Deputy Dir.-Gen. Yossi Inbar said. We should wait for those goals to be set since we will probably be obligated to fulfill them, Inbar said. Israel's status may be upgraded by that point to a developed nation rather than developing nation and thus be subject to the treaty. Moreover, Inbar continued, it is highly unlikely that we would be able to even level out our emissions to zero let alone reduce them by 2025. The ministry has been gathering data on GHG emissions for the past year and hopes to finalize its report by the end of the year. "According to the data we have now, in 2000 we emitted 72.5 million tons of CO2. In 2006, we emitted 76 million tons. By 2020-2025 we expect that to rise to 120 million tons if business continues as usual. Reduction efforts will take it down 30 million tons, which still puts us 20% up from 2000 levels. We can reduce that by another 20 million and zero our emissions level only if we introduce nuclear power plants," Inbar said. At present, there are no plans to introduce nuclear power plants. According to Inbar, the energy sector produces 80% of emitted GHG and the transportation sector 20%. Inbar also estimated that to reduce emissions would cost in the vicinity of NIS 10 billion to NIS 50b. a year. He said the ministry was working on a plan to reduce emissions, but it would take another year or so to flesh it out with the help of mentoring from Germany and France. Paz-Pines noted that meant Israel would have virtually nothing to bring to an international climate change update meeting scheduled for December. National Infrastructures Ministry representative Yoram Rondstein, assistant to the Power Authority head, concurred with Inbar and added that demand for electricity was continuing to rise. "We are planning on building another coal-powered power plant and although we will use clean coal technology, when you are burning fossil fuels, it is hard to reduce emissions," he told the committee. He also reminded the committee that his ministry had set ambitious goals for energy efficiency and renewable energy increases of 20% by 2020, to which Paz-Pines responded, "Do you remember 1997? We were supposed to have two percent of our energy coming from renewable resources by now, and where are we? At 0.1%." Foreign Ministry representative Keren Shahar Ben Ami, who negotiates Israel's entry into the Kyoto Protocol, argued that the bill would "tie our hands in the negotiations." Israel is attempting to enter into a group of nations with similar conditions regarding GHG emissions, she said, and if we set such ambitious goals, the other countries might not let us in to the group because they wouldn't want to be seen as committing themselves to such goals. In an effort to salvage something from the bill, Paz-Pines offered to drop all goals and timelines and replace it with a general statement that Israel was committed to reducing GHG emissions. In return, he wanted government support for the bill's first reading in the plenum. However, the government representatives could not endorse the modified bill either. Nonetheless, the modified bill, without goals and timelines, will go before the plenum anyway, Paz-Pines decided. He hopes to pass the bill in its first reading this week before the 17th Knesset is dissolved ahead of elections. If the bill passes its first reading and is approved for continuation, it can be carried over to the next Knesset. If it does not, then MKs must submit a new proposal.