Israel Sustainability Outlook 2030 - Executive Summary

Summary

The purpose of “Israel Sustainability Outlook 2030” is to bring to the attention of decision-makers the implications of present and anticipated social economic-environmental trends, formulate a realistic vision of sustainability to which Israel should aspire, identify the gaps between existing trends and the possibility of realizing the vision and identify road maps which could lead towards a sustainable future.

Outlook 2030 proposes a conceptual framework for long-term strategy and the means for its implementation. Outlook 2030 was a joint initiative of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Environmental Policy Center at the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies and was conducted over the years 2010-2012. The project included experts from a wide range of fields – economy, society, public policy, planning, ecology, energy and water – all of whom contributed their knowledge, individually and jointly, to building the Outlook.

The initiative to prepare Sustainability Outlook 2030 was based on the understanding that Israel’s environmental future needs to be guided by coherent and long-term public policy.

Recommendations for long-term strategic directions of thinking

We identified nine robust strategies that are relevant to a large number of the scenarios and that will enable the realization of the vision by bridging the gaps between the scenarios and the vision: Promoting innovation and enterprise, Integrated risk management and resilience, Developing a long-term integrated vision, Cultivating values beyond material consumption, Cultivating community life, Urbanity and the revival of city centers, Expanding the concept of security to include the environment, society and economy, Development of leadership with a sense of responsibility for future generations, and Adoption of evaluation methods and systems.