Welcome to the Earth.Org Global Sustainability Index, where Earth.Org examines the policies and actions regarding the environment of every nation on earth. Combining the most respected global indexes on pollution, climate change, policy, energy, oceans, biodiversity we have produced an overall Global Index, which will be updated annually. This is the Global Sustainability Index scorecard for Israel.
Israel’s yearly emissions in 2015 marked a 40% increase compared to those of 1996, although only a 20% increase compared to 2000, and 4% when compared to 2010. The overall declining emission intensity is largely due to reductions in the power sector, whose transition to natural gas has ensured low-carbon electricity generation.
Israel committed to the global climate change mitigation effort as part of the Paris Agreement in 2015, agreeing to an unconditional reduction in per capita GHG emissions from 9.38 (at the time) to 7.7tCO2/eq by 2030, constituting a 26% reduction relative to 2005 emissions. Additional goals are sector-specific and include a 17% reduction in electricity consumption, a renewable energy share of 13% by 2025 and 17% by 2030 and a 20% reduction in distance travelled by private vehicles.
Another important topic in the years to come will be Israel’s adaptation. The country is undergoing desertification, and will experience shorter, more intense rainy seasons, along with intense droughts and heatwaves. Thus, decisions to improve resilience throughout many sectors have been in place since 2009. They aim to fill knowledge gaps, encourage appropriate technology development and minimize losses for energy, water, agriculture, infrastructure, public health and natural habitats.
- Has a relatively low-carbon economy thanks to reliance on natural gas.
- Bound to an unconditional 26% reduction in paper capita emissions by 2030.
- Will put an emphasis on staving off desertification within its territory through rangeland management, afforestation and salt-resistant irrigation systems.
* Our Climate Change Ranking considers this country’s efforts toward climate change insufficient and thus has not ranked it.
** Our Energy ranking considers emission intensity (units of energy per unit of GDP). When one or both are low enough to make their influence negligible on a global scale, the country is left out of the ranking.
Global Sustainability Main Page.
References:
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Biodiversity, Policy: Sachs, J., Schmidt-Traub, G., Kroll, C., Lafortune, G., Fuller, G. (2019): Sustainable Development Report 2019. New York: Bertelsmann Stiftung and Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN).
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Oceans: Halpern, Benjamin S., et al. “An index to assess the health and benefits of the global ocean.” Nature 488.7413 (2012): 615-620.
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Pollution: Wendling, Z. A., Emerson, J. W., Esty, D. C., Levy, M. A., de Sherbinin, A., et al. (2018). 2018 Environmental Performance Index. New Haven, CT: Yale Center for Environmental Law & Policy. https://epi.yale.edu/
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Climate Change: Climate Change Performance Index; Jan Burck, Ursula Hagen, Niklas Höhne, Leonardo Nascimento, Christoph Bals, ISBN 978-3-943704-75-4, 2019
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Energy: Enerdata –World Energy Statistics – Yearbook.
World Energy Statistics
