On Thursday, Dec. 20, Tzipi Livni’s new party, The Movement, stated that environmental reforms will be key components of their platform in the January 2013 Israeli elections. They propose passing a Basic Law for environmental protection, and a long-term blueprint for the Israeli energy market.

Livni presented The Movement’s environmental agenda together with Green Movement chairman Alon Tal.

Tal told the Jerusalem Post, “As a professor of environmental policy, I can honestly say this is the most detailed, comprehensive, creative and ambitious environmental platform ever introduced by a major political party in an Israeli election.”

The national elections in Israel are scheduled for January 22, 2013.

The Green Movement was founded in 2008. It has always campaigned for public transportation reform, among other public issues.  Following that strategy, The Movement now advocates for a complete overhaul of Israel’s Transportation Ministry budget, for increased public transportation, and aims to declare around 250,000 hectares (some 620,000 acres) of new, open protected areas. The agenda also included extensive government support for entrepreneurship in clean technologies.

“We are bringing today a strategic link between two movements that want to make a change in Israel,” Livni said.

Tal said that they would aim to bring renewable energy usage up to 10 percent by 2017 and 20 percent by 2020. Israel’s current official goal is 10 percent by 2020.

For a little more explanation about how Israel’s multi-party election system works, the GlobalPost published a concise guide.

Livni’s party is only a few weeks old. And only time will tell what new developments and platforms will be presented in the lead up to Israel’s national elections. But just having these kinds of tangible plans on the table does present a challenge to other major parties, especially center-left parties like the Labor party, that are also founded on social issues. The environment will certainly play a central role in the upcoming elections.

::Jpost

Image of Israeli elections via ChameleonsEye / Shutterstock.com

Image of Tzipi Livni via Dmitry Pistrov / Shutterstock.com

Read more about Israeli politics:

Environmental Platforms for Israel’s Elections

What’s Next for Israel’s Green Movement – Meimad?

Green Prophet Interviews Green Movement Spokesman Rami Livni

The post New Environmental Strategy On The Table In Israeli Elections appeared first on Green Prophet.

Until now, the environment has never been on Egypt’s political agenda, but today’s parliamentary elections – albeit fraught with undue complexity and fears of corruption – could usher in a new era of nature representation. Almasry Alyoum environmental journalist Hoda Baraka (whose images of Siwa inspired the antidote to bigger, better, more) has sent us an excellent roundup of the different parties and individuals with a green platform who will seek election to Egypt’s parliament today. Hit the jump for a quick look at what kinds of issues are on the table and the people who are raising them.

Following is a bulleted list taken from Hoda’s post at Almasry Alyoum. Please visit them for a more detailed analysis.

PARTIES:

The Green Party of Egypt:

• Founded in 1990
• 3,000 members
• 3 candidates out of 22 will run
• Priorities include water conservation, renewable energy, scientific research, green education.

Freedom Egypt Party (Misr Al-Hurriya):

• Formed in May 2011
• A liberal platform that promotes social justice and equality
• Prepared 5 major policy papers outlining their long-term environmental program
• Priorities include: sustainable water management, agriculture and food security, sustainable consumption, waste management, and habitat loss reduction

The Nour Party:

• A salafist party.
• One of 14 Islamist parties
• Part of the Islamist Alliance
• Priorities include: water pollution – including from illegal pesticide use – and subsequent disease, industry cleanup, alternative energy, and promotion of scientific research.

The post A Quick Look at Egypt’s Environmental Agenda Ahead of Elections appeared first on Green Prophet.

When asked why he was giving election fliers to people who had already voted, he replied: “To get people ready for the next elections.”

The Green Movement – Meimad, a collection of people with an exceptionally strong record of environmental activity in Israeli society, did not make it into the Knesset this time – although they came close. However, according to Daniel Orenstein, a Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Technion’s Center for Urban and Regional Studies and the man behind the movement’s “Unofficial Blog”, the Green Movement – Meimad is just getting started, and is already planning its campaign for the next Knesset elections.

So what now? What does a political movement, whose entire mandate is to influence Israeli law, policy and society, do when it cannot take part in the formal parliamentary process?

Orenstein: After the election results were announced, we had a short mourning period while absorbing the results – obviously we thought we had a good chance of getting in to Knesset. But within a day, activists and leaders of the party looked at our impressive performance – 27,000 votes for a party that had only formed two months earlier. Everyone – in meetings and blogs and personal conversations – declared that this was the beginning of our long road into politics.

We’ve already begun assessing where we succeeded and where we failed in the last election, and are asking important questions about our strategies, our platform and our partnerships. There are meetings taking place in local chapters, among the academic advisors and among the party leadership. Some of the important questions we are asking
are whether the Green Movement and Meimad should continue together (there is a lot of support for this), how to re-approach the various “green” parties regarding potential merging, and how to better convey our message to the broader public.

But it is nearly unanimous that we want to continue the effort we’ve begun, and that the Green Movement is here to stay.

The Green Movement – Meimad was the closest of all the parties that did not make it into the Knesset to passing the threshold. Will it attempt to regroup and make another effort in the future (especially considering that the next government is already talking about making it more difficult for small parties to get elected)?

We are absolutely continuing on. The Green Movement-Meimad activists were fired up in a way that surprised even the activists themselves – it was an amazing and invigorating process to be part of. We are talking about thousands of people who – like most of the Israeli electorate – were becoming incredibly cynical about Israeli politics and the ability of individuals to affect real change here. The Green Movement-Meimad vision and platform gave us new energy and optimism.

Activists were committing hours of volunteer work – canvassing the streets, working the internet, talking one-on-one with friends and family, demonstrating. I’ve never seen anything like it in politics – with the possible exception of Barack Obama’s campaign. And it paid off. No other party had that kind of energy and public presence. We will likely aim for municipal elections and then – once again – challenge the big parties in national elections.

We are not a special interest group – as much of the public perceives “small parties” to be, but rather a broad-based multi-issue party with something unique to say about all aspects of administration and governance in Israel.

To what do you attribute the results of the election? Is Israel perhaps not yet ready for its own green party? Or was it the war in Gaza, which skewed the agenda toward security issues?

I think it is a little of everything you’ve mentioned. It didn’t help that there were four parties with “green” in their title. It confused mainstream voters. However, we successfully conveyed the difference to the environmental community and won three times the vote of old Green Party (which in the eyes of the environmental community presented environmental issues in a very narrow and ineffective way).

It also didn’t help that so many traditionally ideological voters panicked and voted Kadima – a party devoid of any ideology and which exists, in my opinion, only to assure seats in the government for its members. These voters feared Netanyahu and Leiberman more than they believed in promoting their own values.

And it didn’t help that Hamas ignited another armed confrontation in the south, which once again wiped away the possibility of focusing on a strong domestic policy agenda. We’ll have to address each of these issues in the coming months and think how we can overcome each challenge.

In the end of the day, we have a platform – focusing on education, environment, health care, social and economic equity, grassroots democracy, pluralism and tolerance – that most of the electorate can relate too.

Our merger with Meimad strengthened each of these issues, as well as adding the important component of progressive Jewish values.

Meimad’s Rabbi Michael Melchior is one of several green legislators that will not be returning to the next Knesset. What is the outlook for the environmental lobby in the Knesset without them, especially presuming a strong shift to the right?

Rabbi Melchior was considered by many as one of the finest legislators in Knesset – not just on environmental issues, but also on social and education issues. His is a true loss to our parliament. That said, in the past, many excellent environmental legislators came from the right side of the spectrum (Yuri Shtern z”l, Lea Ness, Moshe Gafni, even our own Yosef Tamir originally came from Likud) – perhaps more than came from the left – so, this is not a left-right issue.

So, I think there will still be an active environmental lobby. That said, with the exception of Dov Khenin of Hadash, most Knesset members are environmentalists in the narrow sense – they can identify environmental problems and would support economic or technical measures to address them, but they won’t likely address the core socio-economic issues that give rise to environmental problems. These include economic disparities, values and education, funding priorities, respect of place and of fellow humans. Rabbi Melchior understands the systemic problems, as does the Green Movement.

It is our job now to fine tune our issues, organize our chapters, recruit members and perfect how we deliver our message to the Israeli electorate.

Via Sustainable City Blog.

More on Israel elections:
Re-evaluating Green Parties in Israel
Israel’s Political Parties And Platforms On Sustainability
Environmental Platforms For Israeli Elections

The post What's Next for Israel's Green Movement – Meimad? appeared first on Green Prophet.

The outcome of Israel’s parliamentary elections weren’t a great surprise for many people living in this country of 7+ million people. But now that the coalition government wrangling among the larger parties has begun, the big question among environments is whether any of important “green” issues will be dealt with by either a Likud  or Kadima party based coalition government. Judging by what is currently happening, with issues like security and the economy getting most of the attention during the campaigning, the question now is whether the many ecological and environmental problems Israel is immersed in will receive any serious attention at all.

Israel has several extremely serious environmental problems that need attending to, including heavy air pollution in the big cities (especially Haifa and Tel Aviv), a water pollution problem that is bordering on the brink of being irreversible, and a ticking hazardous waste ‘time bomb’ at the large Ramat Hovav hazardous waste disposal center in the Negev. Although some effort has previously been made to deal with environmental issues, including the creation of a Ministry for the Environment several years ago, overall governmental attention to these problems have been ambivalent at best and substandard at worst.

Dying from pollution in air and water

More than a 1,000 people die from air pollution related causes in Tel Aviv and Haifa annually and many more are sick for extended periods of time. Virtually all of the country’s streams and rivers are seriously polluted; with some like the Kishon and Yarkon being so polluted as to cause death to anyone who swallows the water. A chilling example was when 4 Australian athletes died from ingesting filthy water from the Yarkon when they fell in during the opening ceremony of the Maccabiah sports event in August, 1997.

Prior to last Tuesday’s elections, only the smaller “green” political parties appeared to focus their campaign platforms on environmental issues. One of them, The Green Movement –Meimad, advocated a 50% reduction in air pollution over the next 4 years, as well as public energy conservation programs to reduce the use of fossil fuels while encouraging the development of alternative energy projects such as solar energy and wind turbines.

Another one, the Green Party, has led campaigns against both air and water pollution as well as ridding the country of dangerous microwave cellular phone antennas, present virtually everywhere; and better efforts to save and clean up the country’s beaches, many of which are being rapid eroded by commercial and private real estate development.

Security issues trump environment in Israel

With the Israeli military operations in Gaza still a recent reality, it is obvious that security issues will be forefront when the new Israeli government begins its tenure. This will be followed by the state of the economy, hit hard by the deep recession currently in the U.S.A., as well as in most of the world. Protecting the population and improving their economic lot will be the top priority agenda for the new government, no matter what its political ideologies are.

But somewhere within the minds of government planners, Israel’s environmental issues (including a water resources problem that is already verging on sheer disaster) must be dealt with as the future survival of this country is no less critical than that of the state of the environment. The larger political parties will have to realize this and act accordingly – before the country’s environmental situation passes the point of no return.

More about politics and the environment in Israel:
Israel’s Elections: Platforms on Water
Israel’s Elections: Platforms on Recycling
Israel’s Elections: Platforms on Air Pollution, Industrial Pollution, and Enforcement

The post Environmental Issues and the Israeli Election Results appeared first on Green Prophet.

In preparation for Israeli election day, we present a series of posts with a 

WATER

Green Movement – Meimad

1. The use of economic instruments and water prices as a tool that will allow basic consumption, but will encourage conservation by the various consumers;

2. Production of large amounts of high quality desalinated water from sea water and brackish water. It must be ensured that the desalination facilities will be based on renewable energy, and to act to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that are associated with the process;

3. Increasing the use of reclaimed and gray water;

4. Increasing the enforcement significantly against the various water polluters, both by increasing the manpower and the number of the various sewage samples, and by toughening the actual punishments. The demands of the Water Authority to require the Nature and Parks Authority to pay for water allocated to nature should be revoked, because nature has a basic right to exist;

5. Organizational changes in the authorities that deal with water issues in Israel in a way that will bring to a consolidation of authority in the hands of the Water Authority.

6. Research and Education – an appropriate budget must continue to be allocated for the performance of up-to-date scientific studies and strengthen the connection between the Authority and academic research institutions, and fund the training of water experts.  Additionally, resources should be invested in education for water conservation and appropriate outreach.

The Green Party

1. Conservation, purification and clever planning of the systems for consuming and producing water;

2. Reducing the pumping of water through reducing wasteful agricultural crops, improving the efficiency of distribution, recycling and desalinating water in order to protect the streams, the Kinneret and the groundwater reservoirs;

3. Alternative use of floodwaters and recycled water:  increasing the level of the purification of reclaimed sewage and capturing floodwaters.  Widespread use can be made of saline/brackish water in the residential and industrial sectors, instead of using valuable sweet water;

Hadash

1. Protection of the water sources, the sea and streams from industrial and other pollution;

2. Ceasing the privatization of the water services;

Israel Betenu

Vigorous activity to save the Dead Sea and its surroundings, including a solution to the water crisis in our region.

Israel Hazaka

1. Support for existing plans to rehabilitate streams, soil and groundwater contaminated with fuel;

2. Ceasing the construction of gasoline stations that might pollute groundwater and soil;

3. Allocating resources for a national plan to prevent the pollution of the sea with oil (petroleum);

4. Toughening the punishment for polluters of water sources, streams and sea, and criminal punishment for negligence that caused harm.

5. Reevaluating the continued depletion of potable water sources for the purpose of producing mineral waters, in cases where there is a concern of damage to nature and landscape;

6. In border areas of the Arava, the Golan, and upper Galilee where there is no supply of reclaimed water, the State should initiate a change in the structure of the agricultural market which will ensure an honorable livelihood with minimal exploitation of potable water;

7. Promulgation of regulations that will require the installation of systems for the reuse of gray water in residential buildings and new public buildings. Reuse of reclaimed sewage for agriculture and industrial uses; to act to desalinate reclaimed sewage to drinking water quality for the purpose of recharging the coastal aquifer; increasing the supply of water by desalinating saline water;

8. Allocating resources and encouraging those who deal in the development of technologies that improve the processes for producing potable water, its treatment, and its recycling for secondary uses.

Kadima

1. Comprehensive design of national infrastructures, among other in the field of water supply and the protection of its quality.

2. Safeguarding the status and professionalism of the planning system;

3. Increasing the desalination of sea water based on the national needs including a water allotment for the rehabilitation of Israel’s streams.

Labor

Establishing a sustainable water market based on demand-side management, conservation and the rehabilitation of contaminated wells and on a massive allocation of resources to desalination, improvement of drinking water quality provided to the public, rehabilitation of the streams and returning them to the public as a public asset and a halt to the release of sewage to the sea and to prevent pollution of the sea from land-based sources.

New Movement – Meretz

1. Establishing a system wide approach to the sources of water, taking into account all of the uses of water, including nature reserves, streams and spring conservation;

2. Ensuring equality in the distribution of access to water in general, and to high quality water in particular.  Correction of the discrimination against the Arab communities in the allocation of water for agriculture;

3. Development of alternative water resources, e.g. recycling of sewage water and desalination;

4. Initiate regulations that will enable and encourage the citizen to collect rain water and recycle gray water.

SHAS

Passing laws that are meant to protect nature, water sources and the beaches of the sea.

The Likud party does not refer to the topic of water in its platform.

This summary was compiled in Hebrew ::Bar Ilan Environmental Clinic :: Chayim Usviva :: Translated by the greenprophet.com team.

photo::Creative Commons

The post Israel's Elections: Platforms on Water appeared first on Green Prophet.

In preparation for Israeli election day, we present a series of posts with a summary of the environmental positions of the parties running for the Knesset on the following topics: Open Areas and Beaches, Green Energy, Radiation and Global Warming, Sustainable Development, Recycling, Water, and  Air & Industrial Pollution and Enforcement.

RECYCLING

Green Movement – Meimad

1. Increasing the scope of recycling in the cities.

2. A mechanism will be established where residents pay for the waste they generate and are credited for savings in waste.

3. The waste market should be managed as a closed system, with the payments for property tax and for waste removal administered separately.

4. The landfilling of organic material should be limited and recyclers should be given incentives by the establishment of collection and treatment systems.

5. Trash separation will be encouraged by: giving financial incentives to the establishment of urban infrastructure and treatment facilities, emphasizing local and regional treatment; authorization and enforcement of the recycling regulations that require local authorities to recycle; outreach to the public regarding the importance of waste recycling.

The Green Party

1. Adjustment of market conditions in order to create incentives for recycling:  indirect intervention, limited in time and space, integrated with the educational system; 

2. Making a decision that Government support for industrial equipment will only be implemented as environmentally friendly investments; later on preference will also be given to recycled products like: fertilizers, wood, textile, metals, etc.

3. Promotion of recycling of organic waste, which can be separated easily for this purpose in broad applications (especially in the food industry, small communities, and the agricultural sector).

4. Operating composting facilities (production of fertilizer from organic waste) in local authorities;

5. Encouraging industries to produce energy from organic waste (bio-energy), as is customary in Brazil, US and other countries around the world.  Bio Energy is clean and healthy to the public.

Israel Hazaka

1. Implementing existing Government programs on topics of recycling all types of trash (construction, organic, household, paper) 

2. Reconstruction of landfill sites and providing a governmental example in all Government Ministries and bodies for implementation.

3. Recycling of plastic and paper bags by weight – updating the Deposit Law.

4. Education and public outreach in the education system and in all the media outlets about separation of trash.

5. R&D and purchase of technologies for the production of energy, raw materials and products from waste.

6. The process for constructing recycling plants and producing energy from waste

Labor

1. Converting voluntary recycling into mandatory recycling, will work towards stationing recycling facilities for paper, plastic, glass, and batteries in every municipality, every government office and every large business.

2. Passing a law for recycling of container waste, that will require the recycling of 70% of the total container waste created by every manufacturer or importer in Israel.

The New Movement – Meretz

1. Establishing positive and negative financial incentives, that will encourage consumers to consume less and the consume in an environmentally aware fashion;

2. Encouraging a policy of recycling in the private sector and industry; expanding the Deposit Law to cover drink containers of any volume; establishing goals for recycling and for the purchase of recycled materials as raw material and final products.

3. Establishing a default state for the use of electronic mail and virtual documents in government agencies;

4. Legislating the requirement to collect, recycle and reuse construction debris and recycled solid waste in public projects; 

5. Implementing advanced technologies for the treatment of hazardous waste (sequestration stabilization); reducing the extent of hazardous waste using targeted technology and a policy for the balanced use of toxic components, chemical and biological;

6. Reducing the use of single-use plates and utensils and plastic bags, through an educational campaign and economic incentives. 

The parties of Hadash, Israel Betenu, Likud, Kadima, and Shas do not refer to recycling in their platforms.

This summary was compiled in Hebrew ::Bar Ilan Environmental Clinic :: Chayim Usviva :: Translated by the greenprophet.com team.

The post Israel's Elections: Platforms on Recycling appeared first on Green Prophet.

AIR POLLUTION, INDUSTRIAL POLLUTION & ENFORCEMENT

Green Movement – Meimad

l. A significant budget increase to the Ministry of Environmental Protection, the major portion of which will be direct to the creation of a monitoring unit and special enforcement within the Division of Air Quality. 

2. Increased action for the purpose of deterrence also in the area of prosecution against polluters and increase the frequency of mandatory self-reporting that is required by abnormal emissions and air pollution. 

3. Advancement of the preparation of standards that will give quantitative expression to the principles detailed in the Clean Air Law in order to maximally realize the potential of the law. 

4. Governmental policy in the area of air quality will be derived from the public interest of public health, workers’ health, and the national goal of increasing the quality of life.

5. Renew the activity of the Fund for Investment in Clean Production, in order to aid industries that are prepared to invest in environmental technologies but are having difficulties with the costs involved. Grants will be allocated to industries that show economic difficulties parallel to environmental improvement following installation of new equipment. 

The Green Party

1. The refineries are important to the Israeli economy, but it is not inconceivable that the damage that they cause cancels out this importance.  For their continued existence this industry will be required to adhere to a clear and unequivocal timetable for the gradual reduction of their emission of pollutants, according to models that have been successfully tried in Europe (e.g. “polluter pays” etc);

2. Power plants are essential to the market, but their activity today is unfettered: many power plants are built beyond actual need, they pollute and use badly needed space. The solution will come with the help of a transfer to energy from clean sources, and compliance with reduced emission standards according to a government plan;

3. Petrochemical industries, minerals, chemicals and building materials will be required to comply with strict regulations adopted by the European Union.

4. The Ministry of Environment will prepare a goal for pollutant emissions for every factory in Israel. A factory that does not comply with the goal and continues to endanger the lives of the public will be shut forthwith; 

5. Air quality monitoring stations will be operated under the auspices of the Ministry for Environment, which will give alerts about dangerous exceedances, identify their source and allow the determination of policies for mitigation.

Hadash

1. Aggressive action against the economic interests that stand behind environmental destruction; Special protection of residents around industrial areas.

2. Creation of  a national plan for the protection of public health from environmental hazards: enforcement of the laws for the prevention of pollution and harm to the environment; increase the punishments given to polluters; a policy of assertive enforcement against polluting factories; extraction of the full cost of pollution from the polluters themselves, in accordance with the principle of “the polluter pays”; Requirement of industrial factories to install units that prevent pollution of the air and environmental pollution; Make information on the condition of the environment available to the public. 

Israel Betenu

A deepening of the connection between industry and environmental protection.

Israel Hazaka

1.Decrease pollution of the air, earth, and water by the energy and transportation industries; Coordinated and determined action is required to reduce all of the negative ramifications of the energy industry on the environment and especially the ramifications of the emission of hothouse gases and poisonous air pollution. 

2.Increase the enforcement and punishment against polluting factories and facilities. 

Kadima

1.Preservation of the environment requires decreasing pollution of the air, water, rivers, agricultural lands, the sea, and nature.

2.Concentration of cooperative municipal industrial and business areas, with the division of Arnona in order to prevent inefficient land use. 

Labor

1. A significant reduction of air pollution levels from industry, transportation and power facilities, and the establishment and implementation of a national plan for the reduction of air pollution which includes measurable parameters and clear timetables for the reduction of air pollution.

2. Completing a base of detailed environmental legislation which guarantees efficiency, certainty, equality, transparency and stability for environmental topics based on the principle of polluter pays, which will include tools for enforcement and supervision, stricter punishment, and the granting of wider enforcement authority to local and national authorities.

Likud

Acting to solve the problem of air pollution and to achieve the non-existence of polluting and dangerous infrastructures.

The New Movement – Meretz

1. Legislation of a law to promote environmentally friendly industries which will mandate incentives to environmentally friendly industries and will brig about a shift to “green” industries instead of pollution industries.

2. Allocation of resources for enforcing the prohibition on discarding trash in open areas and for a national network for supervision on the discharge of effluent to streams and the sea;

3. Instituting a policy of “polluter pays”, de jure and de facto, while setting severe fines and deterrent punishments;

4. Creating legislation that will enable the filing of personal suits against polluters, for harming the quality of life and health of the residents, while transfering the burden of proof to the polluter.

Shas

Limit industries that damage, destroy, and pollute natural and national assets. 

This page translated by Daniel Pedersen and Bill Marcus, www.hinematov.net.

This summary was compiled in Hebrew ::Bar Ilan Environmental Clinic :: Chayim Usviva :: Translated by the greenprophet.com team.

The post Israel's Elections: Platforms on Air Pollution, Industrial Pollution & Enforcement appeared first on Green Prophet.

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT

Green Movement – Meimad

1. Creating a secure urban environment for children

2. Returning life to the urban street – encouragement and incentives for business activities in the urban streets, and preventing the migration of businesses to the malls and city outskirts.

3. Advancing natural areas in the city, so that every citizen has access to a natural area near their home.

4. Enforcement of the environmental laws, first and foremost noise prevention and neighborly consideration.

5. Increasing sanitation in the public domain, and creation of a clean looking  city.

6. Increasing the supply of affordable living

7. Promoting green building that conserves water and energy

Green Party

1. Comprehensive planning of complete communities, including housing, shops, places of work, schools, gardens and municipal services essential for day to day living.

2. The plan will take into consideration, amongst other things, the need for the following: development of public transportation, allocation of open spaces and more.

3. Community designs need to help the conservation of resources and reduction of waste.

4. The planned land use at the regional level needs to be incorporated into the a wider transportation network based on public transportation instead of main roads.

5. The areas will include continuous areas of “corridors” that are made up of “green strips” or wilderness that will be set according to the natural conditions.

Hadash

1. Developing a comprehensive policy of environmental protection and adoption of the values of environmental justice.  Promoting equality in the use of natural resources.

2. Securing the budgets needed to connect the cities and villages, including Arab, to the national sewage system, and building facilities for garbage disposal and sewage purification.

3. Stopping the privatization of the environmental infrastructure in land, transportation, water services and the energy market.
Protection under the law and budgetary directives of central cities as residential and cultural environments through the protection of their unique character

4. Providing appropriate budgets for prevention of the pollution of air , water and environment and for the treatment of ecological hazards.

Israel Beiteinu

1. Belief in the connection between human health and the environment and the obligation to create all encompassing policy of environmental protection as a basic right.

2. Protection of the Earth in general, and quality of life in our country, specifically. This from an obligation to human welfare and the values of nature and heritage for this and the coming generations.

3. Founding of an “environmental court.”

4. Continuing the creation and promotion of ecological legislation in the realms of recycling, energy, air pollution, land ,water, wildlife, green transportation, etc.

5. Promoting green building and keeping “green lungs” in population centers.

Israel Hazaka

1. Supplementing the fire fighting network with more special equipment and planes for putting out fires.

2. Return the governmental public campaigns against damaging nature via the media.

3. Gradual increase of emergency fuel reserves for  security and economic function, and transferring it gradually to bomb-proof underground storage facilities – in a way that enables the economy to withstand lengthy wars, a long term fuel embargo , damage to the fuel depots from missiles or attacks and natural disasters.

Kadima

1. Preserving sustainable development, including protection of resources of nature, landscape and heritage for the generations to come.

Labor

1. Promoting only sustainable development

2. Granting preference to strengthening existing settlements over creating new ones, through the recognition of the importance of strengthening the urban texture.

3. Ensuring “green lungs” inside cities and between them, for a better standard of living and based on social and environmental considerations.

4. Requiring green building in public buildings and encouraging private green building

Likud

1. Promotion of incentives for “green building” via tax incentives or increased building percentages.

Shas

1. Preservation of nature and landscape as an important part of our lives on this holy land. The cultivation of the environment holds deep jewish meaning as part of guarding god’s creation. Therefore priority should be given to building that is considerate of nature’s resources.

This summary was compiled in Hebrew ::Bar Ilan Environmental Clinic :: Chayim Usviva :: Translated by the greenprophet.com team.

The post Israel's Elections: Platforms on Sustainable Development appeared first on Green Prophet.

In preparation for Israeli election day, we present a series of posts with a summary of the environmental positions of the parties running for the Knesset on the following topics: Open Areas and Beaches, Green Energy, Radiation and Global Warming, Sustainable Development, Recycling, Water, and  Air & Industrial Pollution and Enforcement.

RADIATION AND GLOBAL WARMING

Green Movement-Meimad:

1. Joining the planned Copenhagen accords planned for 2009 as a member state in the group of developed countries and preparing for the obligations of this commitment;

2. adopting legislation that will change the inappropriate rising trend in greenhouse gas emissions from various sources in Israel. Imposition of a “Carbon Tax” on a variety of the fossil emission sources in order to encourage efficiency and progress towards the increased utilization of alternative energies

3. An immediate stop to the construction of coal-fired power plants in order to switch from an increase in greenhouse gas emissions to a decrease.

4. Widening and deepening of the national network for monitoring air pollution, with transparency in transferring the monitoring results to all interested parties on the local and international level. Developing joint strategies with our neighbor countries in order to locate the producers of transboundary pollution and taking the necessary steps to eliminate or reduce these sources.

Hadash:

1. Cease the capitulation to the cellular telephone companies.

2. A prohibition on the construction of cellular antennas adjacent to residences, schools and kindergartens.

Likud:

Striving to prevent the establishment of another coal fired power plant and to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.

New-Meretz:

1. Adherence to the policy of informing the public regarding the locations and danger of cellular antennas; establishment of a national monitoring network; dismantling antennas that were established illegally or without the proper permit, charging the operator with costs and fines

2. Re-examination of the “3rd generation” technology, and examining the possibility of limiting the technologies offered by the cellular companies in order to protect public health.

The platforms of the Green Party, Israel Betenu, Israel Hazaka, Labor, Kadima and Sha”s had no mention of the topic of radiation and global warming.

Note that many of the positions on GREEN ENERGY are also connected with GLOBAL WARMING

This summary was compiled in Hebrew ::Bar Ilan Environmental Clinic :: Chayim Usviva :: Translated by the greenprophet.com team.

The post Israel's Elections: Platforms on Radiation & Global Warming appeared first on Green Prophet.

GREEN ENERGY

Green Movement – Meimad

1. Building a national plan for energy efficiency.  The goals of the program should be: stopping the rise in energy consumption by 2012 (equivalent to a reduction of 4-5% a year). Reducing the consumption by an additional 3% every year until 2020 – in order to reduce the consumption by at least 20% relative to its level today.  Technological improvements in power plants, standards for efficient electrical appliances, regulations for energy management in large buildings.  Encouraging the design of energetically efficient buildings and Green Building.  Incentives in electricity rates to save electricity.  Short and long term education;

2. Development of renewable energies.  Implementing the existing technologies for generating electricity from renewable energy, and promoting R&D on new technologies that utilize the energy of the sun and the wind in the most efficient way.

3. Regional cooperation – contacts with the countries in the region, especially Jordan and Egypt, for cooperation in establishing renewable energy power plants.

4. Investments in R&D – in order to promote research and bring back the best minds, the government must invest sums of tens and millions each year.  This budget can come also from the energy market itself, by means of a dedicated surcharge.

Green Party

1. Production of clean energy from existing and inexhaustible resources that are local and clean.  The most notable is the sun;

2. The Electric Company will be required to invest in alternative sources of energy: solar energy, wind and bio-energy.

Hadash

Promoting conservation of energy and the use of clean energy, e.g. sun and wind.

Israel Betenu

Promoting the transition to the use of renewable energy sources while combing economic development and establishing the economic independence of the state.

Israel Hazaka

1. Promoting renewable energies and a goal of 10% of the installed production capacity of electricity from solar and wind energy by year 2015;

2. Promoting efficiency measures in the electric market, including the establishment of stricter regulation for minimum allowable levels of efficiency of high-consumption electric devices, promoting wide spread understanding for conservation of fuel and electricity and the examination of new technologies for energy storage during off-peak hours when demand is low.

3. Extracting the full potential of landfills and waste sites for producing bio gas for energy.

4. Identification of desert areas suitable for the construction of thermal solar power plants, and which will allow an increase of the government’s goals in this field, including appropriate areas in Army bases – while avoiding damage to landscapes and nature.

5. Widening the search for new deposits of natural gas and oil.

6. Developing sources of shale oil as an alternative to importing crude oil.

7. Implementation of the interministerial master plan for the energy market in the fields of energy conservation, reduction of greenhouse gases and promotion of clean alternative energy and fuels from renewable sources.

8. Substantial increase of tens of workers in the engineering-professional manpower in the government offices, and especially the Ministry of National Infrastructure in the fields of energy conservation, green building, renewable energies, development of local energy sources and environmental quality.

9. Establishing a national plan for the junking and replacement of old air conditioners with modern and efficient air conditioners in order to save energy and avoid the need to build power plants.

10. Increasing the budgetary support for R&D in renewable and clean energies.

Kadima

Establishing policy in the energy field combining efficiency and conservation with the use of environmentally friendly energies.

Labor

Managing a sustainable energy market, supporting and incentivizing R&D in the field of renewable energies, will help establish Israel’s international standing as the cutting edge of scientific and technological development in the field.  The State of Israel will establish national targets and a timetable for including renewable energy sources in the portfolio of electrical generation in Israel, achieving a goal of 20% of the electricity market based on renewable energy, with an emphasis on solar energy. Will oppose the establishment of coal-fired power plants and will change the composition of the Committee for National Infrastructures  so that it will include a substantial influence from the representatives of the ministries of Environmental Protection and of Health.

Likud

1. Promoting policy and implementation of steps to reduce the amount of energy consumed in buildings;

2. Finding green alternatives to bridge the gap between the increasing demand for electricity and the generation capacity.

New Movement – Meretz

1. Implementation of a comprehensive policy of efficiency and conservation in state institutions, the defense system, and the industrial, agricultural, business and private sectors;

2. Establishing a progressive pricing system for electrical use – households that consume less will pay less for each kWh, a household that uses more will pay more.

3. Implementing the Government decision to build a solar power plant in the Negev, with consideration for sensitive regions that provide desert ecosystems. Encouraging the use of solar energy for residential , industrial and public consumption.

4. Legislating a law encouraging renewable energy in order to incorporate these sources into the Israeli electric market.

5. Promotion of the production of energy from solid waste via the allocation of resources, tools and space specifically for this purpose.

6. Forbidding the construction of new power plants based on such fossil fuels as oil, coal and natural gas, and a prohibition on the expansion of the existing ones.

7. Developing incentives and beginning a public campaign to replace incandescent bulbs with energy efficient bulbs.

8. Complete transparency and transfer of information regarding the use of nuclear energy in Israel and methods of burying nuclear waste.

9. Legislation regarding inspection and control of the development on nuclear energy in Israel

Sha”s does not relate to the issue of the open areas and beaches in their platform.

This summary was compiled in Hebrew ::Bar Ilan Environmental Clinic :: Chayim Usviva :: Translated by the greenprophet.com team.

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