On December 12, 2022, the Year 2022 Summary in the climate change field was held. The main objective was to share the results of the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change with stakeholders. The results of the year 2022 of the Climate Change Division of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia and Georgia’s reporting compliance with the requirements under the Paris Agreement were also discussed during the meeting.
Countries most affected by the climate crisis in the last 30 years have demanded compensation for damages caused by these impacts. This year, this issue finally became the subject of negotiations at the 27th Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and entered the climate policy agenda.
“The loss and damage fund created as a result of the negotiations is a new financing opportunity for a developing country like Georgia.” says Maia Tskhvaradze, head of the Climate Change Division of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia.
The Head of Environment and Climate Change Department at the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture, Nino Tkhilava, presented the important processes that were initiated in 2021-2022, e.g. maintaining the emissions trading system, developing climate legislation, monitoring the strategy, etc. to the interested parties. Chief Technical Advisor of the Regional Environmental Centre for the Caucasus Chief Technical Advisor, Kakhaber Mdivani, paid special attention to the need to raise public awareness of the Georgian citizens and discussed the ways for strengthening the climate action.
This year, the emissions trading system of Georgia was also created; the work on its implementation will continue in 2024. It should be noted that Georgia is one of the first countries in the world that started to implement this system based on the obligation of the Paris Agreement. According to the submitted monitoring reports, the climate change policy of Georgia is in line with the action plans and strategy.
The meeting was held with the technical support of the “Integrated Transparency Framework” (CBIT ITF) project. The project was initiated by the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia (MEPA) and its executive is the Regional Environmental Center of the Caucasus (REC Caucasus). The project is financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF), implemented by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP).
The goal of the project is to improve the reporting and effective management of climate change-inducing greenhouse gases in Georgia.
