Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
View of Haifa s oil refineries and other industrial areas, on May 5, 2017. (Yaniv Nadav/Flash90/File)
A top-level committee of officials set up within the Prime Minister’s Office recommended on Monday the closure “as soon as possible, and within no more than a decade,” of the polluting Bazan Group Oil Refineries in northern Israel’s Haifa Bay and its oil storage complex in nearby Kiryat Haim, as well as the transfer of Haifa Chemicals, a fertilizer plant, from there to the Negev desert in the south.
It issued its “draft government strategic plan” for public comment, before formally advising the government. It said that the closure of the plants had to be conditioned on maintaining the country’s energy security.
Sue Surkes is The Times of Israel s environment reporter.
An undated photo of Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz (R) and Egyptian Petroleum Minister Tarek El-Molla speaking during a meeting of the Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum, in Cairo, Egypt. (courtesy, Israeli Energy Ministry)
Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel on Sunday threw a monkey wrench into the plans of Energy Minister Yuval Steinitz and his Egyptian counterpart to create an Eastern Mediterranean Gas Forum to advance regional interests in natural gas.
By expressing her reservations to the formal ratification of a September signing of statutes by the two nations, along with Jordan, Greece, Cyprus, Italy, and the Palestinian Authority, Gamliel ensured that the issue is brought before the cabinet for a full debate and decision.
Environmental Protection Minister Gila Gamliel. (Courtesy, Environmental Protection Ministry)
Gamliel told the financial sector that it “must be an integral part of the environmental revolution in Israel, and allow investors to choose wisely how to act according to their worldview and invest in corporations and financial instruments that incorporate environmental considerations.”
The Israeli finance sector’s adoption of ESG environmental, social, and corporate governance lags way behind much of the developed world, Anat Guetta, chairwoman of the Israel Securities Authority, told the conference.
“It’s not yet part of the DNA of investment in Israel,” she said, although her department was “totally there.”