Minister of National Infrastructures Benjamin Ben-Eliezer told the Knesset Interior Affairs and Environment Committee yesterday that, "by 2016 we will achieve a target of 5% electricity production from cleantech energies, and this will reach 10% by 2020."
In 1998, the government ruled that, from 2007, at least 2% of Israel's electricity would be produced using cleantech energies. The Knesset Interior Committee heard yesterday that just 0.2% of Israel's electricity was produced from cleantech energies, a tenth of the original target. Committee chairman MK Ofir Pines-Paz (Labor) commented, "The targets were viewed as ambitious for their time when they were set in 1998, but now that we have greater awareness, they look reasonable and even inadequate, yet we're still a long way from realizing them."
Ben-Eliezer told the committee that his ministry's research budget had been cut six times over the last two years. In response, MK Dov Khenin (Hadash) said, "The government is cutting back on funding for research, and is relying instead on the private sector for research into renewable energy. The Infrastructures Ministry must change its stance, and begin building a national program for energy use and conservation."
MK Michal Nudelman (Israel Beitenu) called on the Infrastructures Ministry to provide a proper plan for meeting the targets it was set. Ben-Eliezer undertook to report back to the committee with a plan for delivering alternative energy targets within three months.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes.co.il - on November 27, 2007
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