https://www.jns.org/israeli-president-calls-for-renewable-middle-east-at-cop27-but-some-call-it-a-pipedream/
Israeli President Isaac Herzog went beyond reaffirming his country’s 2021 commitment to fight climate change at the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27) in Egypt at Sharm el-Sheikh.
On Nov. 7, Herzog presented a far-reaching vision of a sustainable energy infrastructure serving as the foundation for Middle East Peace. In a spin on Shimon Peres’s New Middle East, he termed it a “Renewable Middle East.”
“I intend to spearhead the development of what I term a Renewable Middle East—a regional ecosystem of sustainable peace,” Herzog said.
“I envision that in the foreseeable future the solar energy produced in the deserts of the Middle East will be available for export to Europe, Asia, and Africa,” he said. “I believe that the entire Middle East, all Middle Eastern nations, abundant with sun and technology, will have the ability to connect the rest of the world to a magnificent source of renewable energy.”
Ambassador Gideon Bachar, special envoy for climate change and sustainability at the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told JNS that it’s not just rhetoric. “Creating regional resilience to climate change, working together, collaborating, finding solutions between Israel and its neighbors in the region in general is Israel’s policy,” he said. He offered the water-for-energy agreement signed between Jordan and Israel at the conference as an example.
Israel is a relative newcomer to climate change. In June 2021, then-Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced that Israel would cut 85% of its carbon emissions from 2015 levels by 2050. At last year’s COP26 in Glasgow, Bennett upped the ante, pledging net zero emissions.
Israel debuted its first pavilion this year at the annual climate change conference, pushing various innovations. On Wednesday, the pavilion focused on Israeli space technologies that could address the climate crisis.