UN recognizes Holon as Israel's first center of climate crisis knowledge

Holon has been recognized by the UN as a center for climate change emergency knowledge.

This makes it the first city in Israel to be a center of resilience against climate change disasters.

The announcement was made by Undersecretary-General of UN Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) Mami Mizutori in a ceremony at the Holon Municipality alongside Mayor Motti Sasson.

Why is Holon recognized by the UN as Israel's first center of climate change crisis resilience?

Holon is Israel’s first city to be recognized as such in line with the framework of MCR2030 (Making Cities Resilient). It has now joined the ranks of major global cities such as Milan, Barcelona and Manchester, which will mean giving top priority to handling climate change and sharing knowledge and resources.

This is important because in recent years, local municipalities have been taking the lead in preparing for climate change-sparked emergency scenarios, which have only increased during this time.

Crises that occur as a result of climate change include, but are not limited to: heavy rains and flooding, wildfires, drought, tornadoes, thunderstorms, blizzards, heat waves, cold fronts and sinkholes.

But in spite of this, the UNDRR noted that Holon strives to prepare for these in advance and has made efforts to make sure the city’s residents are resilient.

Just a few months ago, Holon residents – both children and adults – took part in a municipality-run earthquake simulation.

Further, the central Israeli coastal city also works hard in reducing its negative impact on the environment. To this effort, it has worked to promote urban renewal, install solar panels, plant trees and more.

These have also caused the city to make efforts in its infrastructure to maintain drains in order to reduce flood risks. In fact, Holon actually has Israel’s largest underground drainage reservoir with a capacity of 4,000 cubic meters of water.

Holon was also one of the many municipalities in Israel to be given funds from the Environmental Protection Ministry to help fight climate change-sparked crises.

Mizutori praised Holon for becoming a “welcome addition to the international UNDRR community.”

“As Israel’s first resilience center, we are committed to sharing our methods with other cities,” Sasson said. “We believe that developing urban resilience is an ongoing process and it is important that urban mechanisms are made in a way to ensure that there is effective communication, cooperation and synergy.

“This is a challenge facing many cities around the world,” he said, “and we are proud to be part of the 2030MCR community and face these challenges together in international cooperation.” 

The Environment and Climate Change portal is produced in cooperation with the Goldman Sonnenfeldt School of Sustainability and Climate Change at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. The Jerusalem Post maintains all editorial decisions related to the content.

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