Israel lags on OECD environmental report

"Israel is the only new country joining the OECD that has not yet prepared an environmental report," says OECD Head of the Environment and Globalization Division Brendan Gillespie. He is due to meet today officials from Israeli ministries, local authorities, and NPOs in order to explain to them how to prepare the report, called the Environmental Performance Review.

Gillespie told "Globes" yesterday that reviewing countries' environmental conduct is a core activity of the OECD. One third of the OECD's regular activities are related to the environment.

Gillespie said, "The report takes a year to write, and it's written jointly by the selected country and representatives of the OECD secretariat and member states. Tomorrow, we'll begin to move the process forward."

For the report, Israel has to select three environmental topics, such as clean air and water, land conservation, or environmentally friendly transportation as main topics, and show how it has made improvements through the use of economic tools.

Gillespie said that the process is voluntary, but, "It's unpleasant to arrive at the committee and look at the OECD reviewers in the eye, and show them zero progress on targets that the country had set a year or two previously. Based on past experience, these reviews usually bring about improvement in most OECD countries."

Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on January 11, 2010