US embassy cable - 05TELAVIV6355

UNCLAS TEL AVIV 006355 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
DEPT FOR OES/PCI, OES/SENV, NEA/IPA AND NEA/RA 
USEPA FOR INTERNATIONAL 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: SENV, ECON, ENRG, EAID, AORC, IS, ENVIRONMENT, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY 
SUBJECT: ISRAEL SUPPORTS U.S. APPROACH TO CSD ENERGY ROUND 
 
REF: STATE 114906 
 
1. (U) The Ministry of Environment shares U.S. views on the 
recent Water Round of the U.N. Commission on Sustainable 
Development (CSD) and looks forward to working closely with 
the U.S. and other like-minded parties in the Energy Round. 
MOE officials have made the following points to ESTH officer 
and Department visitors in recent conversations: 
 
-- The GOI is beginning to focus on the CSD Energy Round, 
within MOE and in the GOI's Interministerial CSD. 
Traditionally, Israel has emphasized water conservation but 
has not focused much on energy conservation.  MOE officials 
see the Energy Round as an opportunity to build on a new GOI 
emphasis on energy efficiency and conservation, including 
involvement of business and academia.  Israel is a leader in 
solar energy research and MOE will look for opportunities to 
expand the use of solar.  The GOI is increasing the use of 
natural gas in the country's energy mix, including by 
requiring plants using heavy fuel oil to convert to gas.  MOE 
is also looking for ways to increase the number of hybrid 
cars, and is examining employee incentives, which currently 
are calculated based on car ownership/use and not designed to 
promote conservation. 
 
-- MOE is interested in learning what U.S. industry is doing 
voluntarily to reduce energy consumption.  It sees this CSD 
round as an opportunity to adopt guidelines and methods from 
other countries.  Like the U.S., the GOI wants to move from 
words to action with CSD initiatives. 
 
-- The Ministry hopes to share some of its own experiences 
during the Energy Round.  It recently negotiated a voluntary 
covenant with industry on air pollution.  With an assist from 
OECD, MOE has embraced using a combination of voluntary and 
regulatory methods to support policy, including for achieving 
energy conservation. 
 
-- MOE is also emphasizing sustainable consumption at the 
individual and household level and is putting together a 
workshop on that theme with EU assistance and is consulting 
with UNEP about sustainable consumption as well.  Much of 
this focus is on consumer awareness, including product 
labeling. 
 
-- MOE is also promoting corporate social responsibility and 
looking for ways to encourage companies to integrate 
environmental concerns into business operations.  The 
Ministry is co-sponsoring a conference with the "Haaretz" 
newspaper later this month which will include a U.S. SEC 
speaker addressing key issues facing boards of directors. 
 
-- The GOI would welcome a CSD focus on implementation tools, 
such as economic incentives, cost-benefit analyses applied to 
public policy issues, and public information kits. 
 
2. (SBU) MOE officials have said that they have had 
difficulty in securing the passage of environmental 
legislation that is both broad and effective, citing recent 
coastal legislation and the air quality law as cases where 
framework legislation was weakened by the time it was enacted 
into law.  Pragmatic experiences, methods, technologies and 
collaborations garnered from the Energy Round will help MOE 
in its efforts to promote Israel's own sustainable 
development goals. 
 
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JONES