Change the climate: Israel’s environmental potential at COP29 and regional impact

Israel showcases climate tech at COP29 but misses deeper environmental focus.

By JPOST EDITORIAL NOVEMBER 12, 2024 04:37

People attend the United Nations climate change conference COP29 opening in Baku, Azerbaijan November 11, 2024. (photo credit: MAXIM SHEMETOV/REUTERS)

Representatives from nearly all the world’s countries are gathering this week in Baku, Azerbaijan, for the 2024 UN Climate Change Conference (COP29). 

Israel is sending a delegation of some 100 representatives, including three ministers. President Isaac Herzog will arrive for the second week of the conference to emphasize the importance Israel attaches to the global issues being discussed.

Israel is no stranger to making an impact at these events, albeit with a very different approach. Every year, articles are published in various Israeli or Jewish news outlets about the different Israeli companies going to the conference with different innovative and hi-tech solutions for different climate change issues. 

This is unsurprising – given the Jewish state’s pride as the Start-Up Nation, it makes sense that technology and innovation would be at the forefront of Israel’s environmental efforts. Unfortunately, technology and innovation aren’t at the forefront – they practically make up the entirety.

Israel’s longtime strategy shows the truth behind Israel’s business-centric approach to climate change. Zionists proudly tout how the Jews made the desert of Israel bloom with the revolutionary usage of drip irrigation, but the fact is that Israel cares less about healing the world’s environment than they do making and showing off technology to do so. 

Workers from the Agriculture Ministry in protective gear retrieving dead cranes who were infected with the Avian Influenza (bird flu) from the Hula Lake in the Hula Valley Nature Reserve, northern Israel, January 2, 2022. (credit: MORAZ BROM/FLASH90)

Climate change is a real threat

Our disregard for the environment is telling in a number of aspects. The government department that deals with the environment, namely the Environmental Protection Ministry, has long been considered a second-tier ministry. And for a country whose identity is so tied to its land and environment, that is incredibly concerning. 

Climate change is a real threat. Summers in the Middle East are harsh enough, but temperatures are continuing to climb with 2024 set to be the hottest year on record, breaking the previous record-holder of 2023. That is two record-setting years in a row and we are seeing no sign of it stopping. 

And, as Mordechai Kedar wrote in the Post on Sunday, the situation is being exacerbated by Hezbollah and Hamas rockets and mortars having caused significant damage to agricultural land and nature, with the conditions caused by climate change enabling the fires that the rockets started to be more devastating than they would have been otherwise.

According to the World Bank Climate Knowledge Portal, “The most crucial component of Israel’s climate is the rainfall. Changes in the annual amount of rainfall, including the number of rain spells, seasonal distribution, intensity, and timing, have major impacts on the country’s water resources. Climate change comes at a price. The cost of expected climate changes in the absence of any mitigation and/or adaptation actions is estimated at 5% of the annual GDP, and is expected to grow by 1-5% by the end of the 21st century.”

Climate change will be a major economic burden for a country whose agricultural and tourism industry is already impacted by the war, Kedar wrote. It also threatens to make the conflict with the Palestinians and Lebanese worse, as water scarcity caused by climate change will exacerbate existing regional tensions.

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What makes this all the more tragic is that Israel has the ideological groundwork in place to truly make a difference in the fight against climate change, not just here, but the whole region. We’ve made legitimately amazing strides in water technology, whether it is through desalination or through private companies like Watergen. And planting trees and helping the environment have long been part of the country’s Zionist ethos. It’s also something that the whole region can agree upon, with Israel having cooperated with its neighbors in the past on environmental issues.The world has noticed this potential, too. This year alone, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for its work in cross-border cooperation on environment issues. If that sort of initiative was pushed sincerely at the top levels of government, it could really make a difference – not to mention helping build stronger regional ties.

Climate change is not an isolated issue and ignoring it by saying Israel is at war and security comes first is missing the point. Just as we battle our existential enemies on our borders, we also must fight the global scourge that threatens all of us.