One day ahead of the United Nations' Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss paints a bleak picture of the situation in Israel. According to his data, while the Environmental Protection Ministry has been formulating an emission reduction plan for the better part of the last decade, it has yet to put it into effect. The Israeli Meteorological Service has difficulty monitoring climate changes in Israel due to lack of resources and greenhouse gas emission is monitored by the Central Bureau of Statistics – and its reports do not include private bodies, such as refineries. Lindenstrauss was expected to present Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with a special report on Israel's environmental efforts this week. The report stands to be the first of its kind. According to the report, in 1996 the Israeli government decided to join the UN treaty on climate changes. The government also decided to form an interministerial committee on greenhouse gas emission in Israel and the ways to reduce it. The Environmental Protection Ministry was tasked with heading the committee and with consolidating recommendations by various experts. Nevertheless, the ministry has never come up with a defined plan to reduce greenhouse gas emission. The interministerial committee was dissolved in 2004 without ever filing its findings. Lindenstrauss' 35-page report reviews the various actions taken by the Environmental Protection Ministry, as well as two commissioned reports – one by Heffetz Consulting and the other by the international McKenzie Group. "The fact that nearly a decade after being tasked the ministry has failed to decide on the professional infrastructure it needs in order to form an effective national plan, indicated the planning and managing of the (work) process were ineffective," said Lindenstrauss' report. Shifting responsibilities The Environmental Protection Ministry, however, is not the only ministry not geared for the global age of reduced emissions: The performance of both the Ministry of National Infrastructures, which supervises the energy market, and the Meteorological Service, which heads climate observation was also found to be lacking. Lindenstrauss found that the ministry's "master plan" for the energy market, formed in 2007 and meant to reduce emissions, was never implemented. The ministry said in response that the plan was still being drafted "in order to fit recent environmental developments." The Meteorological Service was found lacking in both personnel and technology and many of its monitoring activities were found lacking. The Transportation Ministry, which supervises the Meteorological Service, said that "following employees' retirement and streamlining the operations of the meteorological stations, and given the state of the existing meteorological stations, the Meteorological Service is exploring outsourcing possibilities." The ministry added that the Meteorological Service is currently attempting to fill three vacancies. Lindenstrauss also examined the actions of the Central Bureau of Statistics, which has been monitoring greenhouse gas emissions since 2005. The problem there, he stated, lies with the fact that the CBS is not action by proxy of any law or ordinance, which limits its authority. The CBS, notes Lindenstrauss cannot report data regarding non-governmental institutions. The comptroller uses the refineries as an example, citing their recent privatization prevents the CBS from disclosing its data on their emission levels. "The 21st Century will be the 'green century,'" concludes the report. "A country which will push for reduced greenhouse gas emissions will enjoy technological breakthroughs, patent registration and an increase in exports. "A country which fails to reduce emission is likely to find its international standing damaged to the point of being exposed to sanctions."