ISRAEL ENERGIZES ANTI-POLLUTION CAMPAIGN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 TEL AVIV 000195



SIPDIS



SIPDIS



DEPT FOR NEA/IAI, NEA/REA and OES/ENV

EPA FOR INTERNATIONAL

AMMAN for ESTH



E.O. 12958: N/A

TAGS: SENV, ENRG, TBIO, KGCC, IS

SUBJ: ISRAEL ENERGIZES ANTI-POLLUTION CAMPAIGN



1. (U) Summary: The Israeli government undertook several steps that

point towards a new activism on the pollution front in ONE of the

Middle East's most industrialized countries. Although these actions

build on earlier studies and legislation, the new measures being

implemented and commitments undertaken by the government imply a new

decisiveness. Several factors contribute to this change, including

commitments to international environmental conventions, increasing

public awareness of the country's pollution hotspots, and the

growing competition for land use due to population pressure and

industrialization. End Summary.



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New Energy on an Old Issue

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2. (U) Recent Israeli government action on a number of fronts points

toward a new activism against pollution in ONE of the Middle East's

most industrialized countries. The GOI Ministry for Environmental

Protection (MEP) released its 2008 Action Agenda January 15, which

in combination with recent actions announced by Infrastructure and

Finance Ministries implies a new decisiveness in addressing Israel's

pollution problems. The GOI also established a Cabinet-level "Green

Tax Committee" to press for change through fiscal incentives.



3. (U) ONE reason government attention has focused on pollution is a

report commissioned by the Ministry for Environmental Protection

(MEP) about Ramat Hovav, Israel's major toxic waste treatment

facility, located south of Beersheva. The report is due to be

delivered in February but its conclusions have already been released

on the MEP's website. It covers air quality and pollution deriving

from both spot sources (smokestacks) and non-spot sources

(accidents, wastewater) at both the waste treatment site and the

industrial park next to it. Ramat Hovav handles heavy metal,

chemical, and industrial waste, and has become a lightning rod for

negative pubic opinion about the GOI's environmental oversight.



4. (U) The report particularly grabbed public and parliamentarian

attention because the GOI announced last fall that a major new

Israel Defense Force (IDF) training base and city will be built

nearby. A Dutch environmental consultant helping prepare a report

on Ramat Hovav defended government policy, noting that under the GOI

program, by 2010 there will not be excessive pollution at the

planned military complex. By implication, however, he said that

existing pollution levels are beyond acceptable standards. The MEP

concedes this, but has gone on the offensive by planning to

implement a European Union Directive concerning integrated pollution

prevention and control (the IPPC Directive) in Ramat Hovav, and

insisting that all operators at Ramat Hovav comply with these

maximum reference values for pollutants. The timeframe for full

implementation, however, will only be at the end of 2010.



5. (U) On January 16, the GOI also released news of a tighter policy

on air pollution around Haifa, ONE of Israel's core industrial

areas. The Director of the MEP Air Quality Division Shuli Nezer

stated to Knesset that a study of pollution over Haifa bay revealed

the presence of the suspected carcinogens hydrogen chloride,

benzene, chloroform, methylene chloride, formaldehyde and

trichloroethylene in quantities exceeding acceptable standards. In

reaction, the MEP is imposing a plan mandating stringent standards

on industrial plants in the area, again in accordance with European

IPPC standards.









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Coming to Grips With Climate Change

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6. (U) The GOI also has reawakened to the reality of climate change.

Although Israel became a party to the Convention on Climate Change

in 1996, its Kyoto party status was only finalized in March of 2004.

While technically not bound by Kyoto protocol commitments to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions, the GOI is now pressing for OECD

membership, which would come with greater Kyoto obligations. In its

First National Communication under the UN Convention on Climate

Change in November 2000, the GOI said it would target reductions in

vehicular traffic, improve the energy efficiency of buildings, and

move to lower CO2 emissions from industry and electricity

generation.



7. (SBU) Seven years later, the statistics indicate a very mixed

result. Israeli data on gas emissions for the last five years show

that some airborne pollutants did decrease from 2000 to 2005.

Carbon monoxide pollution, mostly from vehicles, decreased by

approximately 30 percent, mostly due to the entry of more modern

vehicles and stricter licensing inspections. However, the amount of

carbon dioxide and greenhouse gases has soared as vehicular traffic

in Israel has increased. Israeli greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions were



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up by six percent over the period. Much of the GHG increase came

from the energy industry, whose emissions increased by 12 percent in

the wake of an increased demand, reflecting Israel's improving

standard of living. Nor has alternative energy sourced electricity

made much progress; despite a declared target of using solar power

for five percent of its electricity by 2007, the country's first

commercial solar power plant is only now entering the bidding

process, delayed by years of bureaucratic logjams over where to

locate it.



8. (SBU) In the wake of the Bali Conference on Climate Change in

December, the MEP Director of the Air Quality Division Shuli Nezer

said the GOI was preparing a major policy change. Although as a

'developing country' Israel has no fixed Kyoto commitments, "we

cannot continue as part of the international community with such a

trend" Nezer said. After the final report about emissions appears

in January, he said the Ministry will examine alternatives to reduce

greenhouse gas emissions.



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Complying With Maritime Pollution Laws

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9. (U) The Barcelona Convention is another instance of Israel

addressing environmental issues in the framework of its

international obligations. GOI Environment Minister Gideon Ezra led

the Israeli delegation to Almeria, Spain, January 15-18 for the 15th

Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention. The

Convention, established under the EU's Mediterranean Action Plan in

1976, now includes 21 riparian states and addresses the

environmental HEALTH of the Mediterranean. ONE of the primary

objectives of the meeting was to adopt a new Integrated

Mediterranean Coastal Area Management Protocol (ICZM Protocol).

Israel took a leading role in this process, trying to better

integrate its national policy and legislation into the Convention's

obligations. Energizing Israel's "Law on the Protection of the

Coastal Environment" is the objective; trying to harmonize the ICZM

Protocol to the domestic law, and assure that integrated coastal

zone management will take place along the entire Mediterranean

coast, encompassing both sea and coast. (Integrated management

relates to ecological, economic and land use features which are

specific to each region.) Israel hopes that adoption of the ICZM

Protocol will spur its efforts to protect both coastline and sea,

and also improve management of neighboring countries' coastal and

marine environments, thereby reducing adverse external impacts on

Israel.

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Sources of the Activism

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10. (U) Several factors contribute to this re-energized

anti-pollution policy of the GOI. Visible environmental problems

and commitments to international environmental conventions are two

factors, but equally important is increasing public awareness of the

country's pollution hotspots. Israel's strong economic growth -

over 5 percent annually for the past four years, - has led to high

consumer demand and a rising standard of living, with the attendant

environmental costs. In Israel's densely populated central region,

increasing competition for land due to a growing population and high

industrialization has pushed people towards land on urban

peripheries previously relegated to waste and industrial purposes.

The demand for accountability for pollution has grown with public

awareness of it. Among other results, this has forced the removal

of Tel Aviv's landfill waste operation (not far from Israel's sole

international airport) to a more remote location 60 miles south.

The 20 million cubic meter mountain of former landfill covering 113

acres is now being converted into parkland to create a greenbelt of

parks cutting through the urbanization spreading south from Tel

Aviv.



11. (SBU) Urban sprawl is also behind the IDF's desire to relocate

to a new training base in the south - on land near the Ramat Hovav

waste site. Public concern about the HEALTH of military personnel

and their families put pollution issues on the front pages, and

created an odd coalition, drawing together conservative

Parliamentarians concerned about IDF readiness and liberal activists

for environmental causes. When pressed by the Knesset on how the

Environment Ministry will address the problem, MEP Deputy Director

General Yosi Inbar acknowledged that the database held by the

Ministry today does not allow for exact calculation of expected air

quality at the new base site -- although he was confident there

would be no danger to servicemen when the base opens in two years.



12. (U) Israeli NGOs have also kept environmental issues in the

spotlight. The MEP maintains a list of 1000 polluted sites in

Israel, places where ground, water and air have been polluted by the

energy sector, industry, and the GOI itself - mostly due to IDF

operations. There is growing NGO and public demand for

accountability and remediation of these sites. On January 15 the



TEL AVIV 00000195 003 OF 003





MEP outlined an ambitious work program for 2008, placing top

priority on the hotspots of industrial pollution, such as Ramat

Hovav and Haifa harbor. The Ministry also pledged to improve

environmental problems in specific venues, such as Bedouin

communities in the south and Arab-Israeli areas of the Galilee in

the north. (Post contacts claim that Palestinian and Bedouin

children have a higher incidence of pediatric blood cancers, and

question environmental exposure risks as ONE cause.) Finally,

targeting long-term issues, the Ministry will undertake the studies

needed to prepare policies addressing Israel's GHG emissions and

industrial waste problems.



13. (U) As public awareness of climate change has grown, it too has

led to public reconsideration of existing policies. ONE Israeli

professor has called for rethinking Israel's trend towards

desalination, relying increasingly on turning seawater into

freshwater for national consumption. He advocates greater

conservation and recycling, because desalination demands enormous

amounts of electric energy -- which in Israel means burning coal and

gas, generating even more CO2. Regarding climate change,

parliamentarians supporting NGO initiatives have introduced

legislation into the Knesset, not waiting for government action.

According to the draft Bill, Israel would be legally obligated to

reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by one-fourth by 2020 in

relation to the quantity in the year 2000, thus echoing the

obligations of the world's developed countries. The MEP has

indicated it prefers a goal of a 50 percent reduction by 2050 - the

objective agreed in Bali.



14. (U) In a move hailed as both popular and environmentally

friendly, the Ministry of Finance proposed a major reform of the tax

structure for vehicles based on pollution. Israel already has a 79

percent sales tax rate on vehicles. Now, for the first time tax

rates will be adjusted according to the emissions of the vehicle, in

15 different levels ranging from a 15,000 shekel surtax on highly

polluting models to a 6,000 shekel credit on low emission vehicles.

The incentive to buy electric cars will be strong, as they will be

taxed at 10 percent, versus the 79 percent rate imposed (though

adjusted) on all other vehicles. The GOI cabinet "Green Tax

Committee" approved this new tax structure on January 13, another

sign of the commitment to a government-wide assault on pollution.



JONES