Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel will create The National Institute for Climate Policy Research to promote science-based policy. By translating scientific knowledge into best practices, the Institute aims to pioneer evidence-based policy solutions, ensuring sustainability and prosperity across all levels of governance and industry. Climate change policy in Israel is lacking.
This new Institute will empower national and local decision makers as well as the private sector to foster impactful climate policies that benefit humanity and society. The new Institute will be headed by former Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg.
The confluence of climate change and the need to build the western Negev back better demands a climate policy institute at the country’s premier environmental research university. The new Institute will bridge academia, local and national government, and industry. It will develop policy papers based on over 50 years of environmental research conducted at the University and will also work with government and industry to help them elucidate and solve their climate mitigation needs.
The Institute will be part of the new Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change in conjunction with the Guilford Glazer Faculty of Business and Management.
“At a time of threats and challenges, the climate crisis is a challenge that is not being marginalized and is not going anywhere. Climate research and science in Israel and around the world are advancing rapidly, and we must design science derived policies that will affect reality in the most effective and shortest way possible,” Zandberg said.
“The climate crisis is worse than we thought, and we have already reached the middle of the ‘decisive decade’ in which humanity must change direction. This means that we must act now but do it in the most appropriate way. In the near future, the Institute will emphasize the climate contexts of the renewed development of Israel and the region.”
As environmental protection minister, the focus of her term was climate change mitigation and adaptation, leading Israel to unprecedented achievements. In 2021, Israel adopted a net zero GHG emissions target by 2050, and in 2022, the government adopted a climate law for the first time in Israel’s history.
Zandberg promoted the investment of billions of shekels by the Israeli government in climate adaptation, nature-based solutions and climate technology and innovation, elements that were not part of the national budget and policy before her term.
Under her leadership, the government introduced a thorough reform in formal and informal environmental education, and significantly advanced private-public partnership as a vital key to achieving climate goals, including promotion of climate innovation, implicatory research and development and a voluntary framework for reducing carbon emissions in the business sector.
