BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 14. As part of COP29 in Baku, Trend News Agency proudly presents COP for Hope, a special project offering an unparalleled platform to hear from world leaders and trailblazers in politics, economics, science, and ecology, all united by a shared commitment to addressing today’s pressing climate challenges.
Today, we are honored to speak with Batzion Bendavid Gerstman, Head of Foreign Policy at the Ministry of Energy and Infrastructure of Israel.
In an exclusive interview with Trend on the sidelines of COP29 in Baku, Gerstman expressed hope that COP29 will be a success, noting that in particular, the presidency seems to have done two things that are very important.
“One is to talk about all the broad issues that are important across the board. And we saw all of the energy initiatives brought by the presidency for hydrogen, for storage, and for green energy zones. And we're very happy about that. The other thing is that they put the hard questions on the table. The idea of the New Collective Quantified Goal for finance is hard. Words are important, but then when it's time for action and time for money, then the conversation becomes a little bit harder. Being unafraid to put that topic in the center of the conversation was an important and bold choice.
We're just at the beginning, so we're waiting to see the results of that conversation. We also see that innovation and climate tech, which is important to us, is also one of the topics here. So we're very much looking forward to a successful convention,” she added.
Gerstman pointed out that the countries are here with their next
Nationally
Determined Contributions (NDCs) and Biennial Transparency Reports
(BTRs).
“The more we are transparent about where we are and the more we are unafraid to admit that this is a challenge and it's not going to be easy, then it will be easier for us to succeed and to keep tabs on each other as we go forward to our next NDCs. Being unafraid to be transparent and talking about our challenges is the only way we can find the solutions together for what we need,” she said.
Gerstman noted that the key message is going to be innovation and cooperation.
“Those are the ways forward that we see and that's what we're also hoping for to see from our colleagues,” she added.
Further, she noted that Israel sees a number of priorities at COP29.
“The first, obviously, like everyone here, is to reach our renewable goals. Israel has primarily solar power, a little bit of wind power and no hydropower. So the work is very significant. We have to expand our solar. We have to expand storage so we can have all the solar energy in our grid. That is one very big priority. We're happy to be here to learn from our colleagues and also show what we have to offer,” noted Gerstman.
She noted that the second priority is innovation.
“Israel is a small country. We don't have a lot of natural resources, but we do have a lot of innovation and innovation solutions for energy and for climate in general. We have innovation solutions for storage, agriculture, food, even textile and recycling. Israel has brought here 20 innovation companies and we're presenting throughout the conference their technologies, because we know that things that have helped us can also help others. One example that Israel is very proud of is our desalination. Israel has really developed a lot of desalination abilities. That is also something that we bring here. Next week, the president of Israel is going to be here for an event together with Azerbaijan to talk about that,” said Gerstman.
She went on to add that the third priority, at least from the Ministry of Energy, is connectivity and regional cooperation.
“Because the challenges of net zero cannot be reached alone. We need to exchange information, to cooperate with finance, with infrastructure,” she said.
Looking at cooperation in green energy sphere, Gerstman said Azerbaijan is a wonderful partner.
“We talk about it usually on two levels. One is exchange of information. So if Azerbaijan already has an interconnecting cable that can bring electricity to Europe, we want to learn how to do that. And also, finding the places where Israel has solutions to Azerbaijan's challenges and vice versa. So when there is innovation and infrastructure that can solve these problems, then by bringing our countries together, bringing our companies together, those are places where we can cooperate and have more work for all of us,” she concluded.
