VZCZCXRO9986
PP RUEHAG RUEHAST RUEHDA RUEHDF RUEHFL RUEHIK RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHLN
RUEHLZ RUEHPOD RUEHROV RUEHSR RUEHVK RUEHYG
DE RUEHTV #0195/01 0241146
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 241146Z JAN 08
FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 5123
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN 3517
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHDC

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. 
 
---------------------------- 
New Energy on an Old Issue 
---------------------------- 
¶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. 
 
 
 
 
------------------------------------ 
Coming to Grips With Climate Change 
------------------------------------ 
¶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 
 
TEL AVIV 00000195  002 OF 003 
 
 
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. 
 
--------------------------------------- 
Complying With Maritime Pollution Laws 
--------------------------------------- 
¶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. 
------------------------ 
Sources of the Activism 
------------------------ 
¶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