President Isaac Herzog and First Lady Michal Herzog hosted the first convention of the Israeli Climate Forum Tuesday.
The Israeli Climate Forum, a joint initiative of the Life & Society Organization and the Office of the President, was established in October 2021 in an effort to get the best minds in Israel on board for a concerted bid to tackle the global climate crisis.
Since entering office, President Isaac Herzog has made the fight against the global climate crisis a flagship issue of his presidency, and in his landmark “Renewable Middle East” speech in February, he spelled out a vision for regional cooperation for the sake of the environment.
In honor of today’s event, the President’s Residence was illuminated in green and special greetings were broadcast from the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, in which they praised the President’s climate initiative.
Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, Opposition representative MK Yariv Levin, Israeli Climate Forum Chairman Dr. Dov Khenin, Israeli Climate Forum Coordinator Dr. Zohar Berman, representatives of Youth for Climate, and ministry representatives also participated in the convention.
“The global emergency is already here," Herzog said at the gathering.
"It is not a problem that belongs to future centuries or generations to come. The global climate crisis is here with full force, and it is getting worse. This is exactly why we established the Forum, so that the State of Israel can fight this crisis. In the few months of the Forum’s activities, in honor of which we have convened here today, many working groups have been working intensively. We are already seeing buds of solutions and new ideas."
John Kerry, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, said in a recorded message: “I really am appreciative to President Herzog for calling together everyone around this Israel Climate Forum. We are very grateful to Israel for the contributions made at Glasgow, the promises of an NDC [nationally determined contribution] that hopefully can even go up this year. And I know this meeting is a meeting to try to take stock, to determine where we are, to see what progress… I look forward to getting to Israel before too long and being able to build on what we are doing… We have a long way to go and we have to go there very quickly to keep 1.5C alive. I know we can count on Israel's phenomenal capacity for innovation.”