The Known & Hidden Costs of Climate Change that Georgia is Paying

The 45th World Environment Day was celebrated on June 5, giving major corporations, non-governmental organizations, and governments the opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to beating pollution, countering climate change, and moving towards greener and cleaner economies. Environmental risks, primarily climate change, have already proven to be one of the most important issues of the 21st century and will likely turn out to be one of the most impactful on the way humans live worldwide.

Development level is one of the biggest divides in how climate change affects and will affect people in different areas of the globe. Less economically developed areas are more sensitive to and less resilient after climate effects, such as natural disasters. Areas with higher incomes and more disposable income are less sensitive to the higher costs incurred in switching to renewable energy sources, and more economically developed countries are less sensitive to the costs imposed by environmentally-friendly regulation on production and manufacturing. As a result, higher income countries are more likely to adopt environment-friendly regulations on production and manufacturing while developing economies find it difficult to invest in costly climate-smart trends like renewable energy.

The common refrain is – is it fair to equally restrain the manufacturing-related outputs of countries that built their wealth on unrestrained manufacturing and have largely moved past heavy industry as a major economic driver, and of developing countries that are in the process of growth and wealth building through heavy industry? Is it fair to impose equal climate responsibilities on more and less developed economies? And how do climate-related policies affect economic and social development in countries like Georgia?

In search of the answers, GEORGIA TODAY contacted the UN Development Program (UNDP), one of the largest international development agencies in the world with a 20-year-plus record of assisting Georgia and the wider region in coping with climate threats.

According to Niels Scott, UNDP Head in Georgia, climate change, though the greatest development challenge, also includes development opportunities.

“Our region is starting to see the adverse impacts of climate change – more frequent and intense natural disasters, effects on agriculture, local industries, people and livelihoods. Due to climate change, we recognise the urgent need to reform the energy and transport sectors and make the economy more sustainable and climate-savvy. Georgia, for example, is revising its national climate change policies and making very real steps toward low-carbon and climate-smart development. This complex and challenging process is determined by the country’s international commitments under the UN Conventions, Sustainable Development agenda, Paris Agreement, Energy Community membership, and the Association Agreement with the European Union. On the other hand, it responds to the needs and aspirations of the Georgian people who are more vocal than ever in requesting a greener future for themselves and the generations to come,” says Scott.

While Georgia contributes a very small share of the world’s emissions, it is doing its part to combat climate change. The Georgian government has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions unconditionally by 15% and conditionally by up to 25% by the year 2030. Since 2015, when Georgia signed the Paris Agreement, Georgia has been focused on two big goals – reducing greenhouse gas emissions and identifying and creating carbon neutral sectors. The priority areas for carbon reduction are forestry, transport, agriculture, and energy. Additionally, Georgia plans to completely revise its vision of disaster risk management and shift from reactive response to proactive preparedness and prevention.

Nino Antadze, UNDP’s Environment and Energy Team Leader in Georgia, says that, without the proper adaptation measures, climate hazards could cost Georgia between USD $10 and $12 billion between 2021 and 2030. The estimated cost of adapting to climate change over the same time-period is significantly less – between USD $1.5 billion and $2 billion.

“Climate-smart policies do not only benefit the environment. They are good for the economy and people,” Antadze says.

For a small country, Georgia indeed pays a great deal to respond to the catastrophic results of climate change. Just three years ago, the major flood in Tbilisi took 19 lives, swept away the Tbilisi Zoo, and caused financial losses estimated at USD $24.3 million (Tbilisi Disaster Needs Assessment, 2015. World Bank/UNDP). One group facing a particularly painful climate-induced reality are the so-called eco migrants from the Adjara region (eco- from ecological, not economic). From 2004–2010, 763 families from mountainous Adjara were resettled by the government after losing their homes in floods and landslides, and countless more have been affected. Residents of the Rioni River basin in the Imereti region are also at risk, where 200 thousand people live under the threat of losing their homes and property in recurrent floods. Increasingly frequent hail and rising temperatures damage crops in the rural regions of the country, including Georgia’s bread basket, Kakheti.

According to Antadze, Georgia urgently needs to revise its climate hazard monitoring, assessment, information and early warning systems, and the UNDP stands ready to support the country in improving the collection of climate information, as well as in promoting climate-smart planning and decision-making across all sectors.

Last year, the Government of Georgia adopted the country’s first ever National Disaster Risk Reduction Strategy and action plan. This year, Georgia received a pledge for launching a multi-million dollar UNDP-supported project, financed through the grants from the Green Climate Fund ($27 mln), Swiss Government ($5 mln) and the Government of Georgia ($38 mln), that will help the country improve its climate information and early warning systems and is expected to protect 1.7 million Georgians from climate-induced hazards.

Tangible results from these promising initiatives have yet to be realized. Until then, and with this year’s flash flood season fast approaching, people in the flood-risk regions will hold out hope that recently implemented resilience measures will be enough to save them from the coming storms.

By Samantha Guthrie

Photo: UNDP Georgia