The cabinet is slated to approve the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, but a last-minute dispute between the Ministry of Environmental Protection on the one hand and the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources on the other, is liable to postpone the vote. The decision has far-reaching consequences for the promotion of environmentally friendly energy, energy conservation, and for electricity rates over the next 15 years.
The direct effect of the decision is on the composition of fuels used to produce electricity, because power plants are responsible for 57% of the Israeli economy's greenhouse gas emissions (electricity production in the industrialized countries accounts for only one third of their greenhouse gas emissions). Israel is due to decide on a new policy to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions before the Paris Conference schedule for December. The conference is intended to avert, or at least limit, the potentially disastrous results of global warming caused by the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. At the previous conference in Copenhagen in 2009, then-Israeli President Shimon Peres declared that Israel would reduce its per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020 (in comparison with doing nothing about the problem).
It is clear today that this target is unrealistic. Ahead of the upcoming Paris Conference, the Ministry of Environmental Protection, with the support of the National Economic Council, is promoting an ambitious target of reducing per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 30% to 7.2 tons by 2030, compared with doing nothing about the problem. In order to meet this target, the Ministry of Environmental Protection is recommending an increase to 22% in the proportion of total electricity produced from renewable energy sources (sun, wind, and biomass) by 2030. The Ministry of Environmental Protection is also proposing the setting of an 18% target for saving in energy consumption, compared with doing nothing about the problem.
The Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of National Infrastructure, Energy, and Water Resources argue that these targets are unrealistic, and warn that an attempt to meet them will lead to a substantial rise in electricity rates. The reason is that producing electricity from sun and wind is still much more costly than from carbon fuels, especially natural gas and coal. The Ministry of Finance's position is that the targets should be reducing per capita greenhouse gas emissions to 8.8 tons by 2030, the average in the developed countries. The European Union (EU), on the other hand, has set a per capita target of 6.5 tons by 2030, 50% less than the EU's emissions in 1990. Per capita greenhouse gas emissions in Israel totaled 10.5 tons in 2012 and 8.8 tons in 1990.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on September 17, 2015
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