IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/enepol/v87y2015icp480-485.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Convergence and conflict with the ‘National Interest’: Why Israel abandoned its climate policy

Author

Listed:
  • Michaels, Lucy
  • Tal, Alon

Abstract

This article describes how Israel abandoned its climate policy through the prism of the country's evolving energy profile, most importantly the 2009 discovery of huge natural gas reserves in Israel's Mediterranean exclusive zone. The article outlines five phases of Israeli political engagement with climate change from 1992 until 2013 when the National GHG Emissions Reduction Plan was defunded. Israel was motivated to develop its climate policy by international norms: OECD membership and the 2009 UN Summit in Copenhagen. Although the eventual Plan may not have significantly reduced Israel’s emissions, it contained immediate cost-effective, energy efficiency measures. Despite rhetorical support for renewable energy, in practice, most Israeli leaders consistently perceive ensuring supply of fossil fuels as the best means to achieve energy security. The gas finds thus effectively ended a potentially significant switch towards renewable energy production. The development of commercially competitive Israeli renewable energy technology may change this prevailing economic calculus alongside renewed international and domestic leadership and a resolution of the region's conflicts. Although Israel's political circumstances are idiosyncratic, the dynamics shaping its climate policy reflect wider trends such as competing economic priorities and failure to consider long term energy security.

Suggested Citation

  • Michaels, Lucy & Tal, Alon, 2015. "Convergence and conflict with the ‘National Interest’: Why Israel abandoned its climate policy," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 480-485.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:480-485
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2015.09.040
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0301421515301257
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.enpol.2015.09.040?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Shaffer, Brenda, 2011. "Israel--New natural gas producer in the Mediterranean," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 39(9), pages 5379-5387, September.
    2. Sikina Jinnah, 2011. "Climate Change Bandwagoning: The Impacts of Strategic Linkages on Regime Design, Maintenance, and Death," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 11(3), pages 1-9, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Tchai Tavor, 2023. "The effect of natural gas discoveries in Israel on the strength of its currency," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 236-256, June.
    2. Noel, Lance & Sovacool, Benjamin K., 2016. "Why Did Better Place Fail?: Range anxiety, interpretive flexibility, and electric vehicle promotion in Denmark and Israel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 377-386.
    3. Ruslana Rachel Palatnik & Tchai Tavor & Liran Voldman, 2019. "The Symptoms of Illness: Does Israel Suffer from “Dutch Disease”?," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(14), pages 1-19, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Goldrath, T. & Ayalon, O. & Shechter, M., 2015. "A combined sustainability index for electricity efficiency measures," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 574-584.
    2. Fischhendler, Itay & Nathan, Daniel, 2014. "In the name of energy security: the struggle over the exportation of Israeli natural gas," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 152-162.
    3. Siddig, Khalid & Grethe, Harald, 2014. "No more gas from Egypt? Modeling offshore discoveries and import uncertainty of natural gas in Israel," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 312-324.
    4. Caleb Gallemore, 2017. "Transaction costs in the evolution of transnational polycentric governance," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(5), pages 639-654, October.
    5. Tessa Mazor & Hugh P Possingham & Dori Edelist & Eran Brokovich & Salit Kark, 2014. "The Crowded Sea: Incorporating Multiple Marine Activities in Conservation Plans Can Significantly Alter Spatial Priorities," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 9(8), pages 1-16, August.
    6. Nina Hall, 2015. "Money or Mandate? Why International Organizations Engage with the Climate Change Regime," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(2), pages 79-97, May.
    7. Itay Fischhendler & Daniel Nathan & Dror Boymel, 2015. "Marketing Renewable Energy through Geopolitics: Solar Farms in Israel," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 15(2), pages 98-120, May.
    8. Athanasios Dagoumas & Floros Flouros, 2017. "Energy Policy Formulation in Israel Following its Recent Gas Discoveries," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 7(1), pages 19-30.
    9. William R. Moomaw & Rishikesh Ram Bhandary & Laura Kuhl & Patrick Verkooijen, 2017. "Sustainable Development Diplomacy: Diagnostics for the Negotiation and Implementation of Sustainable Development," Global Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 8(1), pages 73-81, February.
    10. Eitan, Avri, 2023. "How are public utilities responding to electricity market restructuring and the energy transition? Lessons from Israel," Utilities Policy, Elsevier, vol. 82(C).
    11. Hala Abu-Kalla & Ruslana Rachel Palatnik & Ofira Ayalon & Mordechai Shechter, 2020. "Hoard or Exploit? Intergenerational Allocation of Exhaustible Natural Resources," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(24), pages 1-20, December.
    12. Griffiths, Steven, 2017. "A review and assessment of energy policy in the Middle East and North Africa region," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 249-269.
    13. Hagit Shasha-Sharf & Tali Tal, 2023. "Energy Policy as a Socio-Scientific Issue: Argumentation in the Context of Economic, Environmental and Citizenship Education," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-20, May.
    14. Saviolakis I. Panagiotis & Pazarzi Georgia, 2013. "Transportation of Energy Resources in the Middle East and Central Asia," International Journal of Energy Economics and Policy, Econjournals, vol. 3(Special), pages 127-139.
    15. Siddig, Khalid & Grethe, Harald & Abdelwahab, Noura, 2016. "The natural gas sector in post-revolution Egypt," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 38(5), pages 941-953.
    16. Michail Tsangas & Mejdi Jeguirim & Lionel Limousy & Antonis Zorpas, 2019. "The Application of Analytical Hierarchy Process in Combination with PESTEL-SWOT Analysis to Assess the Hydrocarbons Sector in Cyprus," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-17, February.
    17. Tobias Böhmelt & Gabriele Spilker, 2016. "The interaction of international institutions from a social network perspective," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 16(1), pages 67-89, February.
    18. Eugenia C. Heldt & Thomas Dörfler, 2022. "Orchestrating private investors for development: How the World Bank revitalizes," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(4), pages 1382-1398, October.
    19. Cohen, Nissim & Naor, Michael, 2013. "Reducing dependence on oil? How policy entrepreneurs utilize the national security agenda to recruit government support: The case of electric transportation in Israel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 582-590.
    20. Tchai Tavor, 2023. "The effect of natural gas discoveries in Israel on the strength of its currency," Australian Economic Papers, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 62(2), pages 236-256, June.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:87:y:2015:i:c:p:480-485. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/enpol .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.