Greetings from IEF CEO, Yael Cohen Paran
Dear friends and supporters of the Israel Energy Forum,
As we usher in the Jewish New Year, I am delighted to update you on our progress over the past year at the Israel Energy Forum (IEF) in promoting a sustainable energy future for Israel, and on our plans for the coming year.
In its New Year Eve edition, “TheMarker Magazine” listed its annual 100 leading figures in Israeli society. It honored the Israel Energy Forum and myself by including me as one of the country’s leading “challengers,” for our role in the campaign to retain the new natural gas reserves for Israel. This selection underscores the significant role of the IEF in promoting sustainable energy policy in the public arena in Israel.
Natural gas is one of the core issues we worked on in the past year. We also completed two additional major projects: "Roadmap to a Zero Carbon Israel," which offers a sustainable vision for Israel's energy needs; and our project for promoting energy efficiency in local authorities in Israel, jointly with the Heschel Center, The Union of Local Authorities in Israel and ICLEI.
These three projects represent the unique aspects of IEF's work, combining multi-disciplinary research, policy and advocacy as well as public outreach. They also emphasize IEF’s cooperation and collaboration with other organizations and stakeholders in the energy arena in Israel, to promote an educated discourse on sustainable energy.
Campaign for the Israeli Natural Gas
As mentioned above, natural gas became a core element of our work over the past year. Although the IEF believes that Israel must transform its energy market to renewable energy generation technologies, the large offshore natural gas deposits which were discovered in recent years have created a new reality for Israel's energy future. Natural gas is indeed a fossil, polluting and non-renewable energy source; however, its impact on the environment is significantly less damaging than coal and diesel fuel. We believe that using the gas wisely as a "transitional fuel', will help Israel move on to the renewable energy era.
Nevertheless, the gas market in Israel is dominated by a small group of companies that place significant pressure on the Israeli government to sway decisions in their interest, such as high quotas of gas export without detailed knowledge of the reserves. IEF’s studies show that the exporting of gas at this time has a high likelihood of undermining Israel’s energy security in the future. For this reason, the IEF is leading a broad coalition of environmental, economic and social organizations that joined forces to act against the gas export on various fronts: public, media, professional and legal. Exceeding all expectations, this campaign has become one of the largest and most significant civil campaigns in Israel in 2013.
In the coming weeks, the Supreme Court in Israel is expected to rule on an appeal regarding natural gas exports, prepared by attorneys at the Academic Center of Law and Business in Ramat Gan and submitted jointly by the Center, the IEF, the Society for Sustainable Economy, and a bi-partisan group of prominent Knesset members including the former Knesset Speaker MK Ruby Rivlin and opposition leader MK Shelly Yechimowich. The appeal asks the Supreme Court to instruct the government to seek Knesset approval on this matter; thereby submitting the issue to an open and transparent public debate.
Roadmap to Zero Carbon Israel
The “Roadmap to Zero Carbon Israel” research project, which the IEF has worked on for the past two years, will be unveiled early October in a designated panel at the annual conference of the Israel Society of Ecology and Environmental Sciences. The research was conducted by the IEF in collaboration with academic researchers and external advisors.
The study shows that renewable and sustainable energy sources, such as wind and solar power can in fact replace polluting fossil fuels in supplying Israel's electricity needs, at similar costs to conventional electricity generation. However, integrating extensive energy efficiency measures is essential for achieving these goals and keeping the cost of power on reasonable terms.
Energy efficiency in Local Authorities
The third core project the IEF has worked on in 2013 is the completion of the project for promoting energy efficiency in local authorities in Israel. Over the past year we have worked on establishing an “energy administration office” for a group of local authorities in the north of Israel (in the Western Galilee region) that oversees and manages energy efficiency efforts in these municipalities. The IEF has assisted this new office in issuing bids for efficiency projects; we trained professionals within the local authorities, participated in a delegation of mayors and municipality CEOs to Europe on the subject of urban energy efficiency; and assisted authorities in raising government funds for promoting energy efficiency projects.
The IEF thanks you for your ongoing support. We wish you Shana tova – a happy, healthy and sustainable new year.
Yael Cohen
CEO Israel Energy Forum
