The OECD Environmental Performance Review of Israel makes 41 recommendations to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address the country's environmental challenges and to develop a green growth plan that combines environmental, economic and social policies.
The OECD summarizes, "As a relatively small, water-scarce, densely populated, and highly-urbanized country, Israel faces pressing environmental challenges. It has made good progress in addressing air pollution, water use and some other environmental challenges. In the process, Israel has developed a dynamic clean-tech sector. However, the fast pace of economic and population growth intensifies pressures on the environment, including waste generation, habitat degradation and greenhouse gas emissions."
The OECD, however, also points to some anti-environmental incentives, explicitly citing incentives that encourage the use of private cars to get to work, polluting the environment in the process. These incentives include financing for car maintenance and free parking at the office. The OECD advises Israel to review its tax policy on company cars and the absence of caps on fuel consumption.
The OECD advises cutting the purchase tax on cars, raising the excise on gasoline, and collecting tolls on roads in order to encourage the use of public transport. The OECD believes that these measures could slash Israel's carbon dioxide emissions, which rose 5% in 2000-08 as Israel's economy grew rapidly.
The OECD recommends switching payments to employees for car expenses to other purposes that do not pollute, such as daycare. The OECD says that tax revenues on cars have for years have been important source of revenue for the Israeli government, but that gasoline excise revenues have exceeded revenues from taxes on cars.
The OECD says that subsidizing fuel adversely affected its use and harmed the environment, citing the use of diesel for haulage, public transport, agriculture, and fishing. The OECD says that greenhouse gas emission can be reduced by expanding the use of toll roads, collecting congestion charges on heavily used roads and in cities, and pollution charges.
OECD Deputy Secretary-General Rintaro Tamaki presented the report, the OECD's first environmental report on Israel since it joined the organization one year ago, to Netanyahu. The OECD says that Israel's public spending on the environment is below the OECD average and that the budget of the Ministry of Environmental Protection is below the average of corresponding ministries in other member states.
Minister of Environmental Protection Gilad Erdan said, "Israel's joining the OECD changed the rules of the game that prevailed in the preceding decade. The environment is now an integral part of decision-making of OECD members and Israel must adopt this approach. Our challenge is to sever the destructive link between economic growth and environmental degredation."
The OECD said that Israel's hazardous waste output grew 33% in 2000-08, and that capacity to handle this waste has stagnated. There is no suitable infrastructure for collecting toxic waste and it is often interned in municipal landfills. The OECD calls for legislation to regulate hazardous waste management to prevent environmental damage and to clean up the extensive contaminated areas from past spills. It says that this issue is not being addressed, due to the high costs involved, which could drag out the clean-up for decades.
The OECD also notes that just 1% of Israel's land is designated as national parks, and that the current parks are too small to provide habitat for the flora and fauna.
The OECD's recommendations include:
- Continue to expand the use of environmentally related taxes and market-based instruments, and gradually remove tax concessions that are potentially harmful to the environment.
- Strengthen the mix of policies to support the marketing and diffusion of environment- and climate-related technologies.
- Reinforce environmental liability for damage to natural resources.
- Gradually increase the agricultural and industrial sectors’ share in financing the full costs of water infrastructure.
- Set up a system to monitor greenhouse gas emissions and provide an annual assessment to the Parliament on progress in achieving targets.
- Review current arrangements to manage waste and draw up a comprehensive new policy, possibly including new legislation and an action plan.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on November 8, 2011
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