Clima East Workshop on Climate Change: Georgia’s Commitment Efforts

On June 27 the EU-funded project “Clima East” organized a meeting to discuss ongoing United Nations (UN) negotiations on Climate Change with representatives of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development of Latvia, the European Commission’s Directorate General for Climate Action, and officials dealing with climate change from Eastern Partnership (EaP) countries.

One of the main topics of discussion was progress towards the possible legally binding and universal agreement to be reached in France, in December 2015. From November 30 to December 11, Paris will be hosting and presiding over the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21), otherwise known as “Paris 2015”. The conference is crucial, as it intends to achieve a new international agreement on the climate, applicable to all countries, with the aim of keeping global warming below 2°C.

During the two-day meeting in Riga, the participants also discussed the national priorities of each country, their contributions to reducing emissions, and adapting to climate change impacts.

Grigol Lazriev, Head of the Climate Change Department of the Ministry of Environment and Nature Protection of Georgia, in his presentation “New Climate Change Agreement: Georgia’s Intended Nationally Determined Contribution” informed his audience that: “Georgia is committed to reducing unconditionally 15% of its GHG emissions below BAU for the year 2030. Emission intensity per unit of GDP will be reduced by around 37% from 2013 to 2030. Conditional Reduction: the 15% commitment could increase up to 25% in a conditional manner, subject to a global agreement addressing important topics including technical cooperation, access to low-cost financial resources and technology transfer.”

At the workshop the sides also spoke on the funding opportunities to meet each country’s objectives and shared best practices.

Clima East is the EUR 19.2 million project package assisting the EaP countries and Russia in approaches to climate change mitigation and adaptation. It consists of two components: the first, with a budget of EUR 11 million, covering a number of pilot projects that support the development of ecosystem-based approaches to climate change, implemented by the UNDP. The second, with a budget of EUR 8.2 million over 4 years, is a policy component that seeks to foster improved climate change policies, strategies and market mechanisms in the EU’s partner countries by supporting regional cooperation and improving information access to EU climate change policies, laws and expertise.

Photo of the June meeting in Riga, from the Clima East website.

Nino Japarashvili