A seawater desalination facility located in Mahal, northern Israel. During the desalination process ..

Repo

Israel’s largest export partner EU
A carbon tax on steel and home appliances will take effect next year.
Israel
All-out war on fostering climate start-ups with reduced emissions of 300 million won
Hydrogen energy facilities will also be accelerated

*A carbon blue engineer checking the carbon removal system. [Carbon blue]*

A seawater desalination facility located in Mahal, northern Israel. During the desalination process here, Israeli startup Carbon Blue was collecting carbon dioxide dissolved in seawater and converting it into calcium carbonate, or limestone. Up to 400 tons of carbon dioxide are reshiftd annually.

Carbon Blue is applying a technology that reshifts carbon while increasing the efficiency of its desalination facilities already in operation, declared Noga Friedman, vice president of Bishop Carbon Blue. In Israel, desalination is a matter of survival. This is becautilize more than 70% of houtilizehold water is obtained through freshwater processes.

Recently, Israel is building all-out efforts to strengthen its carbon capture capabilities in existing freshwater technologies, as in the case of carbon blue. The key reason is the European Union’s (EU) carbon border adjustment system (CBAM), which will take effect in January next year. The EU charges products imported from offshore as much as carbon emissions generated during production.

The EU is Israel’s largest trading partner. About one-third of Israel’s total trade comes from transactions with the EU. In other words, carbon regulation is a structure that directly leads to export competitiveness.

A carbon blue engineer checking the carbon removal system. [Carbon blue]

The Israeli government also recognizes this as an industrial and trade problem, not an environmental problem. Adam Shalimchek, director of international cooperation at the Israeli Ministest of Environmental Protection, declared, “We are testing to fit European policies and regulations.”

CBAM views like a tariff, but it works as a calculator. Import volumes are multiplied by carbon emissions per product, to which the carbon price formed in the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) is applied. The higher the emissions, the greater the burden. For example, if 1,000 tons of steel is exported to the EU and the emission per ton is 2.1 tons, a total of 2,100 tons of carbon dioxide is calculated. Considering that the EU ETS price has recently been 85 euros per ton, it may be necessary to purchase a CBAM certificate worth 178,500 euros (about 306.6 million won).

Reducing emissions immediately lowers the burden. As carbon emissions are reduced in the production process, the cost also decreases. Carbon reduction technology soon leads to price competitiveness. As a result, the Israeli industest cannot delay the timing of the response.

Most of Israel’s main export items, such as machinery, chemicals, and industrial parts, belong to industries with high carbon emissions. When CBAM is implemented in earnest, companies without reduction technology will inevitably falter from the cost structure. “Israel still has a gap in environmental policy compared to Europe,” Director Shalimchek declared. “To fill this, we are responding quickly with the development of climate technology.”

A view of Israeli startup H2Pro’s hydrogen facilities. By applying an indepfinishent electrolysis method (E-TAC) that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen, the technology to produce hydrogen without carbon emissions is being advanced. [Reporter Kim Kyu-sik]

Along with “carbon-reducing technology,” Israel is simultaneously developing “no carbon-free technology.” Startup H2Pro has developed its own electrolysis technology (E-TAC) that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen. It is a method of producing hydrogen without fossil fuels. Converting fuel to hydrogen in industries that utilize a lot of energy, such as steel and chemistest, can significantly reduce carbon emissions generated in the production stage.

H2 Pro attracted attention when Breakthrough Energy, a venture capital founded by Bill Gates, invested. Renewable energy produces jaggedly depfinishing on the weather, but existing hydrogen facilities have not been able to keep up with this electricity, declared Rotem Arad, chief business officer (CBO) of H2 Pro.

Changes are also taking place in the agricultural field. Josef Farm in the Negev desert combines desalinated water with precision irrigation to minimize water utilize, and suppress carbon emissions through soil management and crop management. This is an example of climate technology coming down to industrial and agricultural sites beyond laboratories.

CBAM’s sphere of influence is not limited to Israel. Turkiye, which has a high proportion of EU exports, is under direct pressure, mainly in high-carbon industries such as steel and cement. South Korea and Japan are also within the sphere of influence, accounting for around 10% of the EU’s total trade.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) declared in a recent report that “export companies’ competitiveness will now be determined not by cost but by emissions data and reduction strategies,” adding, “Companies with a carbon management system will have an advantage in the new trade environment.”

■ EU Carbon Border Adjustment System (CBAM)
It will be fully implemented from 2026 as a non-tariff barrier that imposes costs on offshore products imported into the European Union as much as carbon emissions generated during production.