This is part 11 of a series of educational posts from the IFoA’s Climate Change Disclosures Working Party about climate reporting topics. Here we focus on Israel: current practices and a brief overview of things to come.
In 2022 Israel proposed its first climate bill with the aim of reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. The bill is still under discussion with conversations stalling in 2023.
Israel’s climate disclosure is voluntary locally, with the push to disclose only coming from the need to participate in the world economy.
Israel’s stock exchange, the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), is a member of the Sustainable Stock Exchanges Initiative. However, it has not yet requested obligatory disclosure.
Currently, the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has 4 supporters based in Israel, 2 of which are global businesses and 2 of which are consultancies for environmental, social, and governance (ESG).
Israel’s insurance companies’ regulations are based on Solvency II. Hence, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority’s (EIOPA) requirement for taking account of climate risk in the own risk and solvency assessment (ORSA) is likely to be taken into account.
Israel’s pension regulations now include a requirement to consider ESG when investing funds.
Hence in summary, ESG requirements including climate disclosures are currently being considered locally as part of upcoming, wider global requirements.
International Financial Reporting Standards are often adopted at speed in Israel. Hence, the IFRS’s new International Sustainability Standards Board standards might be adopted sooner rather than later.
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange: www.tase.co.il/en
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The views expressed in this post are those of the individual authors, and not necessarily those of the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries or those of their employers. Information within this post is correct as at the date of writing (i.e. end of July 2023). Hence, there may be subsequent updates which are not reflected. Any reader should still reference the underlying legislation and standard, and should there be any conflict, the underlying information in the relevant standard or legislation supersedes any information presented in this post.