The cabinet on Sunday approved an ambitious plan to plant some 450,000 trees in cities to provide more shade and lower temperatures in urban areas as climate change takes hold.
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The goal is to plant the trees by 2040 at an estimated cost of $720 million.
The trees will be planted along 18,640 miles of road, according to a plan presented by Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Environmental Protection Minister Tamar Zandberg, and Agriculture Minister Oded Forer.
"The Israeli government has made climate a national goal," Bennett said. "More than 90% of the country's people live in urban localities, and the warmer the climate gets, the harder it will be to move around outside."
"That's why we are preparing to plant about half a million trees along all the roads of the cities we pass through," he explained.
According to Zandberg, cities need more shade, trees and nature-based solutions to deal with climate change.
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"It is time for the government to take a decision that will ensure that urban planning adapts to changing climatic conditions," she said.
According to Forer, the plan "will achieve a dual objective: protecting the environment and improving urban space."
This article was first published by i24NEWS.
