Greenpeace Israel filed a petition with the High Court of Justice against the Ministry of Energy on Sunday, demanding the cancellation of the fourth competitive process for obtaining licenses for gas and oil exploration over an area of about 6,000 square kilometers in Israel's economic waters.
According to the lawsuit, the expansion of the offshore gas industry on the planned scales will lead to significant additional greenhouse gas emissions, which will require the State of Israel to accelerate the pace of annual emissions reductions in an impractical manner, thereby effectively thwarting the possibility of meeting greenhouse gas emission reduction targets as promised by the state in the international climate agreements (the Paris Agreement).
Greenpeace activists' protest (archive), photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The organization notes that "contrary to the perception that gas is clean, gas is a fossil fuel mainly methane, a greenhouse gas 84 times more powerful than carbon dioxide, which is emitted throughout the gas production chain, and is almost irreducible." The lawsuit was filed together with the opinion of Dr. Avi Lubchik, an expert in the field of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions.
The opinion written for the statement of claim by Dr. Avi Lubchik sought to examine Israel's future greenhouse gas emissions as a result of the implementation of the competitive process for gas and oil exploration. The results of the model show that while according to the data provided by the gas companies to government ministries, the percentage of methane emissions lost in the gas sector in Israel is only 0.014%, it was found that the percentage of waste is 2.7%, meaning that this is an underestimation of 192 times.
International Climate March || Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
Israel's emissions reduction targets were set in Government Resolution 171 "Low Carbon Economy" and were also transferred to the UN Convention Secretariat, the UNFCC, ahead of the Glasgow climate conference in November 2021. As part of these targets, Israel has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030% less by 27 than the annual amount measured in 2015, and to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 by 85% of the annual amount measured in 2015.
The opinion presented the results of the model, which represent the additional annual emissions from the development of a new gas reservoir, relative to the annual rate of emissions reduction required to meet the climate targets to which Israel has committed. The comparison shows that the additional emissions from the gas sector are expected to dramatically hamper Israel's reduction efforts. Therefore, according to the organization, it can be argued that promoting a move that radically harms the ability to meet the targets is unreasonable and requires the intervention of the court.
Demonstration at Nahsholim Beach, photo: Home Guards
Dana Cohen, Head of Climate and Energy at Greenpeace Israel, said: "By embarking on the new process for gas and oil exploration in the Mediterranean Sea, the Israeli government is violating the climate agreements and eliminating any possibility of meeting the targets. In doing so, the government is once again choosing the profits of the fuel companies, at the expense of our future and that of the future generation."
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