Minister of Environmental Protection Tamar Zandberg: “The Ministry of Environmental Protection continues to support innovative Israeli technologies in the fields of climate and the environment, recognizing that the necessity to deal with the climate crisis also represents an economic opportunity. We are happy to see that we are not alone and the Plantech community, in which the Ministry is a partner, already has about 700 start-up companies and a growing number of entrepreneurs, researchers and investors, all of whom have one goal – dealing with the climate crisis.”
Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Galit Cohen: “The office promotes a variety of initiatives in the fields of climate and the environment, which aim, among other things, to correct fundamental market failures at the interface between environmental challenges and the business world. We are a key player in the environmental and financial fields, having the knowledge and expertise regarding climate risks, and we are happy about our cooperation with the financial regulators in order to develop the Our knowledge about the significance of climate risks, in aspects of financial stability and investments.”
Today (Wednesday, 21.9.2022) a conference of the PLANETech innovation community was held at Tel Aviv University, attended by the Minister of Environmental Protection, Tamar Zandberg; Director General of the Ministry of Environmental Protection, Galit Cohen; Yuval Lester, Senior Vice President for Policy and Strategy Planning; Prof. Nega Kronfeld Shor, the chief scientist of the office and other professionals.
The conference was attended by technology companies that presented solutions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and deal with the climate crisis, in the fields of energy, water, transportation, alternative protein and more, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Innovation Authority, academics as well as private investors from Israel and the world.
Minister Zandberg opened the conference, emphasizing the urgency of dealing with the climate crisis and the need to deal with the climate challenges that are already happening today. The minister emphasized the importance of the commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, when in preparation for the climate conference in Glasgow, the prime minister committed to zero net emissions by 2050. As a complementary and necessary step, the minister noted the need to uphold the government’s decision regarding carbon pricing in Israel, thus aligning with the developed countries leading the The fight against the climate crisis and embodies the economic-environmental damage of greenhouse gas emissions.
According to the minister, a transition to a low-carbon economy is essential in order for Israel to meet its commitment to reduce emissions under the climate treaty. Moreover, this is a move with clear economic advantages which is an opportunity for the growth of an innovative Israeli technology industry against the background of the global effort to deal with the climate crisis.
The minister noted the commitment of the Ministry of Environmental Protection to support Israeli climate technology companies and the government’s decision from last June regarding the continued development of the Israeli climate tech industry with government support of an unprecedented amount of NIS 3 billion. The Minister mentioned the alternative protein sector as a rapidly growing field in Israel where Israel is positioned as one of the leading countries in the world.
The CEO of the firm, Galit Cohen, participated in a panel on the topic of financing the transition to a low-carbon economy. In the panel, the participants discussed the challenges of raising private capital for the development of climate technologies.
The director general of the firm reviewed the firm’s activities in the field of financial environment, and the importance of the firm as a factor helping to develop the field, as it has expertise in the fields of the environment, and as a holder of information and data on environmental risks and environmental and climatic consequences of various economic activities in the economy.
In this framework, the office is formulating an Israeli taxonomy based on the European taxonomy, which will classify economic activities and financial products according to the degree of their contribution to the environment, thus helping investors in risk management and preventing “greenwashing” of financial products. In addition to physical risk management, the office develops climate risk maps that can be used by various factors in the economy, including the financial sector.
The CEO emphasized the need for government support in the financing of climate technologies along the economic value chain, in light of the economic potential of these markets in the world and the fact that the Israeli climate-tech arena, despite its rapid development in recent years, still does not exhaust the local technological potential.
The Ministry of Environmental Protection’s partnership in the Planetech innovation community is part of the Ministry’s support program for innovative Israeli climate and environmental technologies, which began in 2018. As part of the program, the Ministry works, among other things, in close cooperation with the Innovation Authority to support innovative Israeli technology companies that develop solutions in the fields of climate and environment, in the track The pilots, which is intended for companies whose product they have developed is ready for a commercial demonstration in the field in preparation for the company’s growth, and in the innovation lab track intended for startups in earlier stages of development.