The moment of truth: In
Glasgow, Scotland, the 26th United Nations Conference on Climate Change will open today, in what many see as the latest opportunity to reach practical international cooperation in an attempt to address the challenge of global climate change.
The conference will be attended by leaders of dozens of major countries, including US President Joe Biden, the prime ministers of Britain, France, India, Canada, Italy, Turkey, Australia and more. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett will also attend the conference.
Bennett will leave for Glasgow tonight, where he is expected to meet with a host of world leaders.
Bennett will once again fly an El Al plane that was leased especially for him, even though the Zion Wing plane, which was purchased and built especially for the country's leaders for NIS 650 million, is ready for use.
This is the fifth time that Bennett has gone to political meetings abroad on a special plane, even though the plane built by the state is ready for use. The cost of renting the planes from El Al is estimated at at least NIS 25 million a year.
In addition, the Prime Minister will meet at the conference a number of world leaders, including British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, Honduran President Juan Orlando Arnands , And NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg.
In addition, he will meet with the Crown Prince and Prime Minister of Bahrain - Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa.
This will be the first time that the leader of one of the countries that signed the Avraham agreements meets with an Israeli prime minister.
The purpose of the current conference is quite clear: to move closer to the fulfillment of the promises made by the countries six years ago at COP21 in Paris.
Under the Paris Agreement, countries pledged to collectively reduce their greenhouse gas emissions sufficiently to prevent the earth from warming more than 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial periods (in addition, rich developed countries also promised large amounts of aid to poorer countries). Developing - to help them deal with the consequences of climate change and reduce their greenhouse emissions).
The conference will discuss a number of issues, including the level of cooperation between a number of factors in order to try and protect ecosystems, the scope of economic assistance that developed countries must provide, and more.
The most important of all is the achievement of measurable "emission targets" - that is, the extent to which countries undertake, if at all, to reduce gas emissions that cause, according to accepted assumptions, climate change.
The State Comptroller's report published last week stated that although Israel is more exposed to the risks of climate change, it is not prepared for the climate crisis.
Meanwhile, on Friday, thousands of demonstrators marched in Tel Aviv as part of the climate march and demanded a declaration of a climate emergency.
Among the participants was also the Minister of Environmental Protection, Tamar Zandberg.
"Leaders have run out of time, there is no room for declarations - only immediate actions," the protesters said.
The event was led by the various environmental organizations.