The government made statements, made decisions - but did not take actions that would allow real progress * The State Comptroller published today (19.3.24) a follow-up report on the treatment of the climate crisis and other reports on environmental issues. A subcommittee of the State Audit Committee imposed confidentiality on another report concerning Haifa at this stage
aState Comptroller Mattaniho Engelman warns about the handling of the climate crisis: "Aside from the security attention, the Prime Minister and the ministers must act to deal with the environmental risks. The environmental reports we publish today were mostly completed before the war. I see importance in their publication at this time"
In summing up the report, Engelman writes: The government is faltering. This is another flag raising for the prime minister and the ministers; Most of the deficiencies we were alerted to in 2021 were not corrected; The State of Israel was left with many statements and a long series of government decisions regarding its commitment to act in the climate field, but did not take all the necessary actions; The lack of actual corrective action exposes the country to many risks; The actions of the Treasury have delayed and even stopped the state's preparation for dealing with the climate crisis in certain issues."
On cross-border air pollution from Judea and Samaria: "This is a multi-year failure of the Civil Administration and the Ministry of Environmental Protection. The dangers of air pollution from the fires worsened during the Iron Swords War, more than 50,000 complaints from residents reached the Ministry of Environmental Protection - but it did not inform the Ministry of Health. These are health and environmental damages of over NIS 9 billion by 2030"
On the air pollution in the Haifa Bay: "The Ministry of Environmental Protection did not report to the government for 3 years (2021-2019) how the plans to reduce air pollution are implemented - and did not publish data on 60% of the serious deviations in the emission of pollutants from factories in the Bay (2022-2021)"
The actions of the Israeli government and its preparation for the climate crisis - an extended follow-up audit
The government's functional shuffling in the climate field: the government made statements, made decisions - but did not take actions that would allow for real progress. Most of the deficiencies that the auditor warned about in 2021 have not been corrected.
The findings of the special report published by the State Comptroller in October 2021, which examined the actions of the Israeli government and its preparation for the climate crisis, indicated deep and fundamental gaps in the government's preparation actions and the state's failure to meet the goals it committed to. Observing the progress of the government's actions on the subject since the publication of the previous report, led the State Comptroller to make a decision at the beginning of 2023 regarding the conduct of a comprehensive follow-up audit designed to examine whether the Government of Israel is working to correct the deficiencies raised in the previous report - and if it is promoting the actions that will ensure its preparedness for a crisis, this in accordance with the significant risk that stands before it and its international obligations.
The comprehensive follow-up report once again reveals, through individual follow-up of the handling of more than 100 audit findings that came up in the previous report, a worrying picture: most of the deficiencies were not corrected at all or were not corrected in full; The State of Israel was left with many statements that were basically incorporated into a long series of government decisions regarding its commitment to act in the climate field, but all this without leading processes and without taking actions that would enable real progress. It is therefore possible to characterize the government's conduct on the subject as "functional shuffling".
It is possible to point to six fundamental failures that explain the faltering operation of the government over the past few years, and in some matters even more so in the two years that have passed since the publication of the previous report:
- The absence of a leading government body with decision-making authority: The absence of a leading government entity committed to achieving the state goals, which works to implement a coordinated and holistic government plan and decides disputes. Continuing to function based on the decentralized government system, without addressing the existing functional barriers as raised in this follow-up audit, does not deal with the same barriers in realizing the preparation of the government ministries for climate change.
- Delay in binding regulation (legal anchoring): Very partial implementation of dozens of decisions made by the government in recent years, and a delay in promoting a climate law. It should be noted that at the end of the audit, the government began actions to promote the climate law, however, the new bill does not include binding goals that would enable the issue to be led and incorporated into the government's actions in an effective manner.
- Not promoting a carbon tax: The absence of a financial tool that will allow the internalization of the external costs caused by economic activity that emits greenhouse gases (GHG) and will allow the avoidance of the imposition of a carbon tax on the export of Israeli goods abroad, this as part of a "package" of reforms in taxation and incentives aimed at moderating and offsetting the increase in the cost of living and compensating populations The worthiness to promote and the local industry in case of damage to them - something that could happen if the carbon tax alone is promoted.
- A missing answer in the field of the electricity network: There is a lack of investment to upgrade and build technical capabilities along the electricity network chain, including expanding the mix of energy sources.
- The lack of government risk management includes: The preparation of a government-wide binding national reference scenario that will be a real compass for formulating individual work plans that deal with the threat.
- The lack of a budget framework for the climate: The Ministry of Finance's approach to budgeting in segments does not suit the complexity of the issue and its scope, and together with the lack of control over the issue, this leads to low utilization of budgets intended for the issue. This is even more problematic in view of the striking disparities between the amounts actually spent since 2015 on climate issues, which are tens of thousands smaller than the amounts the state invests, through various supports, in fossil fuels.
The findings of this follow-up audit should therefore be seen as raising another flag for the government and the prime minister. There is a special importance for integrated international action to deal with the climate crisis, and the State of Israel must take an active part in dealing with this with the rest of the world. The lack of actual corrective action regarding the conduct of the state regarding the climate crisis in transportation the government and the one who heads it exposes the country to a future risk that is relevant to the current generation and future generations.
More of the topic in Hayadan:
