Israel Cuts Carbon Emissions To Boost Economic Success

A carbon emissions reduction plan had been unanimously approved by Israel's cabinet on Sunday, April 10. The plan aimed for cutting greenhouse gases and improving energy efficiency for the benefit the economy.

Government officials implemented the cumulative effort in order for Israel's economy to save more than $8 billion in finance, energy, environment and economy costs. Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon stated that the ministries intended to continue investing resources as required to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution.

The  carbon emissions reduction plan will follow the international climate accord in Paris last year. Israel will provide 500 million shekels for loans to improve energy efficiency and a 300 million shekel budget for projects with goals of promoting efficiency in industry, business sectors and municipalities.

Israel had committed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to 7.7 tCO2e by 2030. This represented a drop of 26 percent over emission records from 2005. Cabinet ministers stated that they would determine ways to reduce the coal usage and encourage the shift towards natural gas which will result in a substantial drop in pollution.

They will also study measures in helping make transportation more eco-friendly and ways to cut travel times, while building a team to break barriers and help Israel's clean technology sector. They also planned to give tax incentives to encourage the utilization of renewable energy and push for more green construction projects, CNBC reported.

Meanwhile, 10 years ago, Walmart also took part in the gas emissions reduction plans. The giant retail company tallied carbon footprint of its supersize stores, trucking fleet, and products. With the aid of the EDF, Walmart was able to calculate that their merchandise was the major contributor of carbon emissions, Greenbiz reported.

With the generated information, the retail company committed themselves to reducing the carbon emissions by 22 million tons in 2015 alone. Recently, they announced that they were able to surpass their goals.