Herzog and Harris announce joint initiative on climate change, food security

Israeli President Isaac Herzog met with U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris on Wednesday as part of his visit to the United States. The two leaders announced several joint initiatives the two countries will be promoting.

In her statement, Harris first stressed the strong bond between the United States and Israel before announcing joint initiatives involving climate change and food security, in combination with Israeli and U.S. technology to bring what Harris called “climate-smart agriculture and technology” to the Middle East and Africa.

“As I have made clear, as President Joe Biden has made clear, the United States has an unbreakable bond with Israel. And our commitment to Israel's security is ironclad,” Harris began. “I'm also pleased to announce that each of our countries will invest $35 million for a total of $70 million for new food security and climate resilience initiatives."

"And in particular, we will focus on bringing climate smart agriculture and technology to the Middle East and to the continent of Africa. Specifically, this new initiative will deploy Israeli and American technology to farmers and innovators. And the type of work that we are talking about will range from the deployment of new water efficiency technologies to African farms, to the expansion of access to mobile apps, which allow, for example, farmers to monitor crop health and help increase food production as a result,” she explained.

During Herzog's joint remarks, he emphasized that climate cooperation is a "major factor" in the Middle East in providing food security.

He affirmed that "we are harnessing today the broad infrastructure of our cooperation to introduce a new joint initiative to address a primary challenge of our time which is the climate crisis, with its far-reaching implications for life on Earth, and of course the possibility of nations to thrive and succeed under such complicated circumstances.”

“And I will say that in our region, I truly believe that climate cooperation can be a major factor in realizing this vision of a Renewable Middle East that supplies energy and enables nations to have food and water, and an ability to function under such complicated circumstances of the global climate challenge,” Herzog added.

The Israeli president concluded his statement with a quote from a Jewish text.

“I will end with a small Jewish text, which tells a story of God speaking directly to Adam in the Garden of Eden. He introduces Adam to the beautiful trees in paradise, and implores him: ‘Give mind not to harm or destroy my world. For if you are to destroy it, there will be none to restore it.’”