A new State Comptroller review says climate change will affect every local authority in Israel through harsher heat, lower rainfall, rising sea levels, higher health risks, more pests and greater electricity use. Yet only 103 local authorities, about 40%, have prepared a climate adaptation plan or are in the process of drafting one, while 154 authorities, about 60%, have not begun such work.
The report says the Environmental Protection Ministry, the regulator responsible for the field, does not track how prepared local authorities are. Although regulators have funded six assistance programs in recent years to help municipalities prepare adaptation plans, most authorities still have not done so. Some told the comptroller they were not even aware of the calls for applications, with one saying, “We were not exposed to the climate calls,” and another saying it only discovered that it had not known about a 2022 call after checking.
According to the questionnaire sent by the State Comptroller’s Office, the main obstacles are lack of budget, shortage of professional staff and missing climate data and information. One authority said that without dedicated manpower and without funding calls supporting climate preparedness, it cannot be expected to prioritize preparing an emergency plan.
The comptroller also said the regulator is failing to provide a full picture of readiness, despite international experience showing the importance of monitoring local preparedness. Flood risk is described as one of the most serious climate threats, and Israel faces it almost every winter. In September 2025, a short but extreme rain event broke daily rainfall records, with more than 120 mm falling in the Nahariya area within hours, causing flooding in homes and public spaces, fallen trees and clogged drains. In winter 2020, seven people died and property damage from flooding was estimated at tens of millions of shekels.
Despite that record, none of the drainage systems examined by the comptroller in Ashkelon, Jisr az-Zarqa and Nahariya can handle the updated reference scenarios for extreme rainfall and expected water flows. Earlier shortcomings have also not been fully fixed. A previous audit found that responsibility for drainage infrastructure inside urban areas had not been clearly divided between drainage authorities and local governments, and the follow-up audit found only minimal improvement. A team led by the Prime Minister’s Office proposed a framework for drainage in Israel, including a division of powers and responsibilities, but by the end of the follow-up review the Agriculture Ministry, together with the Interior Ministry, the Water Authority and others, had still not completed comprehensive regulation of the field.
