President Reuven presented the first Nechama Rivlin z’l prize for Sustainability on Sunday evening at the Fourth Israeli Climate Conference, which encourages public recognition of climate issues in Israel.
The First Lady did much to advance the awareness of sustainability, particularly through grass-roots activities to strengthen the connection to the land.
The prize was awarded by the Environmental Movement to local and national Initiatives which have been outstandingly successful and which are led by environmental organizations and local initiatives at the conference which took place at the Tel Aviv Museum of Art.
The Nechama Rivlin ז”ל Prize for Sustainability was awarded to the students’ protest movement for climate in Israel, to the Rabbis’ letter against the use of disposable plastic, to the campaign for clean air in Haifa Bay and to Emek Hazvaim in Jerusalem.
President Rivlin expressed his thanks for the choice to pay tribute to the memory of Nechama ז”ל through a prize that encourages sustainability and environmental initiatives, saying that it “truly reflects Nechama’s love for people and nature.
‘In the the flowerbeds,’ the First Lady once wrote, ‘the barriers fall, nature is close, and people who work with us become friends.’” The president spoke about how she taught him, who grew up in the city, to look at nature and to appreciate it, adding “Nechama was one of the first to understand that ecology, sustainability and environmental protection are far more than simply love of nature.”
Ahead of the UN Climate Conference held last September, the president said, “I signed on behalf of the State of Israel a climate initiative led by the President of Austria. By signing, I once again expressed Israel’s support for important steps to limit emissions of greenhouse gases, and to slow down rising global temperatures. These are steps that appear in the Paris Climate Convention that Israel signed some three years ago. Dealing with climate change requires us to think broadly, to think creatively, to think responsibly.”