Israel’s Clean Air Law (2011) provides for the Ministry of Environmental Protection to develop and implement a comprehensive National Air Quality Strategy. It is the central instrument of the law. The Strategy is to be updated at least every five years, to ensure its efficacy in tackling the wide range of pollutants emitted by industry, energy production and motor vehicles.
After repeated warnings that the Ministry was lax in finalizing the third 5-year Strategy, we filed in early 2021 a public interest petition to the Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice. As always, our objective in turning to the Court is to ensure that any revisions to the Clean Air Law take into account projected population growth, changing land-use patterns and the need to integrate climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.
In fall of 2022, the Environment Minister submitted to the Court a statement confirming that there would be no further delay, and that the Ministry’s Air Quality division had set the process in motion. At Adam Teva V’Din, we welcome the move; our Chief Scientist is working with the inter-ministerial team updating targets and weighing innovative tools to ensure that the renewed Air Quality Strategy will continue to serve as the most stringent instrument for safeguarding the health of all Israelis.
