New Clean Air Legislation for Israel
Overview
Israel's air pollution regulations are derived from a 1961 statute that remains largely unchanged. The Ministry of Environment's Air Quality Division commissioned a study from the Policy Center, assessing the need for new air pollution control legislation in Israel. The report included a comprehensive review of air legislation in a variety of nations around the world. Experts in air pollution control were interviewed regarding the adequacy of present rules for air pollution.
There are a variety of creative policy instruments such as trading, bubbles, environmental taxes that are incompatible with the present statutory framework. In addition, many policy areas with a direct impact on air quality (e.g., traffic management, parking restrictions, green house gas emissions, etc.) are simply not addressed by present air quality laws. The report highlighted the international trend to unify all air pollution legislation in a single framework law. In some nations, like the United Kingdom, the air quality statute is linked to a flexible "air quality strategy" which can be updated according to the developments in the field.
The Ministry of Environment professional staff, along with the Director General, attended a workshop at the Arava Institute to explore different approaches towards legislation. As a result of the conclusions, two modest amendments to the present air quality laws were drafted along with a proposed decision for the Israeli government in the area of air pollution control. The final report was submitted to the Ministry of Environment in 2004.
Products
Idit Reiter, Alon Tal, "Assessing Policies and Legislative Alternatives for Air Quality in Israel" Reports submitted to the Ministry of Environment, 2001-2004.