Environment at a Glance: Israel
Table of contents
The OECD Environment at a Glance Country Notes are designed to support transparent, evidence-based information. They provide concise and descriptive overview of progress across major environmental issues, including climate, air quality, freshwater resources, waste and the circular economy, and biodiversity conservation. They feature selected environmental indicators, building on harmonised datasets available on OECD Data Explorer. Differences with national data sources can occur due to delays in data treatment and publication, or due to different national definitions and measurement methods. The text of this country profile is complementary to and has benefited from the OECD Environmental Performance Review of Israel 2023. See the Reader’s guide to the Environment at a Glance Country Notes for more information.
Israel is a small, open economy, densely populated and highly urbanised. Economic and population growth are driving increased land, energy, water use and transport demand. The population increased by almost 60% between 2000 and 2024 and, since 2005, gross domestic product (GDP) has been growing much faster than the OECD average, and has only slightly contracted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. GDP per person has been increasing as well, getting closer to the OECD average. The country has a sizeable export-based, high-tech sector, specialised in computer hardware and software, medical technologies and pharmaceuticals.
Israel is characterised by desert conditions in the south and snow-capped mountains in the north. The country has a small coastline on the Red Sea in the south. Water scarcity is a major concern, leading Israel to pioneer the development of a range of water-related technologies. Land ownership is mostly public, a unique feature among OECD countries. Land is centrally managed and the property market consists primarily of private trading in long-term leases.
Despite its relatively small size, Israel has an exceptionally high degree of biological diversity. It is at the crossroads of the migratory routes of birds and marine species. The country has limited natural resources. These include phosphates, bromide, potash, clay and sand. The discovery of offshore natural gas reserves in the early 2000s has had a major impact on Israel’s fuel mix, moderating its dependence on imported fuels.
Israel’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have increased since 2000, on the back of population and economic growth. Emissions peaked in 2012, followed by a gradual decoupling, due to a less carbon intensive energy mix and energy efficiency improvements, reinforced by a growing share of low energy-intensity/high-GDP activities (e.g. in high tech).
Although per person production-based (i.e. produced within the territory) and demand-based (or footprint, i.e. including emissions incorporated in imported goods) GHG emissions remain below the OECD averages, they have remained relatively stable during 1996-2020. Demand-based emissions are higher than production-based ones, meaning that Israel is a net importer of GHG emissions embodied in its final demand (i.e. demand for goods and services by all residents).
Energy industries accounted for 43.4% of total GHG emissions in 2024 (excluding land use, land-use change and forestry – LULUCF). Emissions from electricity generation declined between 2012 and 2018 as a result of the fuel switch from coal to natural gas. However, demand for electricity is growing, driven by population growth, the growing electrification of end-uses (e.g. electric vehicles and trains) and the need for desalination of water. The demand has been supported by one of the lowest residential electricity retail rates among OECD countries. Transport is the second and a growing contributor to total GHG emissions, due to a high dependency on private cars, mostly powered by fossil fuels. Waste is the third-largest source of emissions, accounting for 11.6% of the total, primarily due to waste landfilling. Emissions from this sector have doubled since 2000. The LULUCF sector is a net carbon sink, although its contribution relative to total emissions remains negligible.
Israel relies almost entirely on fossil fuels for its energy supply: 92.9% in 2025. Natural gas, followed by oil, dominate the energy mix. The use of natural gas has expanded substantially after the discovery of large gas fields off Israel’s coast in the early 2000s, which helped moderating the country dependence on imported fuels. Coal is being progressively phased out; the goal is to eliminate it from electricity generation by 2026 (OECD, 2023[1]).
The country’s share of renewables in the energy supply mix and in electricity production is among the smallest in the OECD.
Emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx) and sulphur dioxides (SO2) have been decoupled from economic growth. This is mainly due to the reduced combustion of coal for electricity generation. The implementation of the 2015 National Plan for Reducing Air Pollution and Environmental Risks in Haifa Bay, a port area with a high concentration of petrochemical industries, led to a 56% reduction in local industrial emissions of NMVOCs. Haifa Bay remains a hotspot for air pollution emissions, alongside Ashdod industrial area, especially for NMVOCs such as benzene (OECD, 2023[1]).
Population exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) is declining but remains one of the highest in OECD countries and exceeds the 2021 guideline value of 5 µ/m3 recommended by the World Health Organization, mainly due to high natural background levels. Road transport is the main source of air pollution in urban centres, while illegal waste burning is a major source in rural areas. Industries and electricity production are also significant sources of PM2.5 concentrations (OECD, 2023[1]). The Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Ministry of Health estimate that an average of 5,500 premature deaths per year are due to excess exposures to air pollution above the WHO's 2021 guidelines, mainly due to exposure to PM2.5. The premature deaths rate per capita is lower than in European countries with similar air quality concentrations, due to the younger population in Israel.
Due to its climatic conditions, Israel is under high water stress and water scarcity is a major concern. To provide its rapidly growing economy with sufficient and reliable water and achieve water security, Israel relies on desalinated water and treated wastewater (each representing about a quarter of water use). Israel’s six desalination plants supply over 40% of the country’s domestic urban water (i.e. water not used for irrigation). More than 87% of wastewater effluents are reused, mainly in agriculture. However, freshwater still accounts for about a third of the water used in agriculture, thus maintaining a high pressure on freshwater resources (OECD, 2023[1]).
Water consumption per person is among the lowest in OECD countries, thanks to massive public awareness campaigns emphasising the value of water.
At the 2017 United Nations Oceans Conference, Israel made a voluntary commitment to reduce the direct discharge of wastewater into the sea by the end of 2017 by 80%, compared to 2012. Today, about 94% of all wastewaters is collected and treated; 87% is reused, primarily for agricultural purposes.
Virtually all inhabitants are connected to a wastewater treatment plant, but only 69.2% benefit from tertiary (“advanced”) treatment due to delays in the upgrading of Jerusalem’s and Haifa’s large wastewater treatment plants (OECD, 2023[1]).
The amounts of municipal waste generated have steadily increased over the past 20 years. Israel has one of the highest levels of municipal waste generation per person among OECD countries. This is mainly due to the rapid population growth and rising standards of living.
Although municipal waste is increasingly recovered, about 76% was still landfilled in 2024, one of the highest shares in the OECD. This is partly due to the low landfill tax (OECD, 2023[1]).
Israel’s economy is rather resource-intensive and both domestic material consumption (DMC) and the material footprint per person are above the OECD average. Both indicators showed upward trends since 2015. The recent increase in DMC is due to a strong increase in the consumption of non-metallic minerals in the construction sector, and to a smaller extent, rising domestic fossil fuel extraction. This, in turn, is explained by the rise in construction activity to respond to increasing demand for housing and infrastructure from the rapidly growing population (OECD, 2023[1]).
The increasing demand for and development of housing and other infrastructure exert growing pressures on open natural landscapes, cause habitat fragmentation and add to land scarcity. Forest use represents 6.8% of land area and cropland 16.3%, among the lowest shares in the OECD.
Despite its relatively small size, Israel enjoys extensive biodiversity, being at a junction of migratory routes between Europe, Asia and Africa. However, the status of indigenous species is preoccupying, especially for amphibians and mammals. The protected species list was updated in 2019, with hundreds of species being added. All species on the Red List of Plants are now protected.
In Israel, most land is publicly owned, which facilitates the designation of protected areas. Over the last decade, the country has considerably expanded its terrestrial protected areas, which cover almost a quarter of its land area. This is well above the OECD average and the 2020 Aichi targets (under the Convention on Biological Diversity) to protect at least 17% of land area. Although the country recently established some marine protected areas, their share of the country’s economic exclusive zone remains low. A new protected area was designated in the Makhtesh Ramon in November 2024. More efforts are needed to achieve the 2030 Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) target to protect at least 30% of terrestrial and inland water areas, and 30% of marine and coastal areas.
This section shows selected policy instruments based on data available for most OECD countries and does not provide a complete overview of countries’ policy mix to achieve their environment-related objectives. Interpretation should consider the country specific context.
The share of environmentally related tax revenue in GDP has declined in recent years, like in most OECD countries, but is still above the OECD average, at 2.1% in 2024. The share in total revenues has increased during 2001-10, but has declined since, and was below 7% in 2024. As in other OECD member countries, energy-related taxes, including taxes on motor fuels, make up the bulk of environment-related taxes, followed by transport taxes. Pollution-related taxes play only a minor role. Israel has relatively low energy taxes and high vehicle taxes (OECD, 2023[1]).
Fuel excise taxes, an implicit form of carbon pricing, covered 65.9% of emissions in 2023. About 22% of GHG emissions have a Net ECR above EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 equivalent, a mid-range estimate of current carbon costs. Net ECRs are highest in the road transport sector, which accounts for 20.5% of the country's total GHG emissions. The Net ECR is zero or negative in the electricity and other GHG emissions sectors. Together, these sectors account for 68.8% of GHG emissions (OECD, 2024[2]).
The new carbon tax provides a basis to encourage emission reductions, but its rate is low and uneven across fuels. Since 1 January 2025, this tax applies to fossil fuels used across the economy, including in power generation. Carbon tax rates are below the above-mentioned EUR 60 per tonne of CO2 benchmark. The rate on natural gas is particularly low and set to remain so, increasing very gradually to reach the equivalent of EUR 18 per tonne of CO2 equivalent in 2030 (OECD, 2025[3]).
The share of environmentally related government research and development (R&D) budget is very low, below 1%, and has not evolved much since 2000.
With less than 20 environmentally related inventions by residents per person, Israel remains below the OECD average, as well as in the share in total inventions.
Israel’s official development assistance (ODA) is allocated through bilateral, trilateral and multilateral channels, with a focus on capacity building and humanitarian assistance worldwide. No ODA is being targeted specifically to the environment or climate change. Its total ODA decreased in 2025 and represents one of the lowest shares of gross national income among the Development Assistance Committee (DAC) countries (0.05%) (OECD, 2026[4]).
References
[4] OECD (2026), Development Co-operation Profiles, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/development-co-operation-profiles_04b376d7-en/israel_be801ea8-en.html.
[3] OECD (2025), OECD Economic Surveys: Israel 2025, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/d6dd02bc-en.
[2] OECD (2024), Pricing Greenhouse Gas Emissions 2024: Gearing Up to Bring Emissions Down, OECD Series on Carbon Pricing and Energy Taxation, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/b44c74e6-en.
[1] OECD (2023), Environmental Performance Reviews: Israel 2023, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/0175ae95-en.
Further readings
IEA, “Israel country profile”, https://www.iea.org/countries/israel
MoEP (2021), Israel Environmental Bulletin, Vol. 45, March 2021, Ministry of Environmental Protection, Jerusalem, https://www.gov.il/he/departments/publications/reports/environmental_bulletin
Marin, P. et al. (2017), Water Management in Israel: Key Innovations and Lessons Learned for Water Scarce Countries. World Bank, Washington, DC, http://hdl.handle.net/10986/28097
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