Paris 2015: Georgia Steps Up its Efforts to Combat Climate Change

Climate change is on top of the international agenda for the end of 2015. From November 30 to December 11 Paris will be hosting 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.

The European Union has already pledged to slash its emissions by at least 40% by 2030. Last year world’s two biggest economies, the United States and China also signed a game-changer agreement which envisages the two countries working together to meet respective emissions targets. As part of the agreement, China raised its goal for non-emitting power sources (nuclear and renewables) to 20% of total energy production, to be achieved by 2030. President Barack Obama said the United States would cut its own emissions by more than a quarter by 2025.

Georgia has been part of international climate change efforts since its independence. The country ratified the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1994 and the Kyoto Protocol in 1999. In 2010, the country associated itself with the Copenhagen Accord. Tbilisi, capital of Georgia, has also joined the Covenant of Mayors Initiative of the EU aimed at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2020.

Currently, Official Tbilisi is also cooperating on environmental issues with regional countries, under the common EU policy framework, the Eastern Partnership (EaP). The recent informal EaP dialogue in Minsk on June 29 allowed Johannes Hahn, Commissioner for the European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations; Karmenu Vella, Commissioner for the Environment, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries; and representatives of the Latvian Presidency of the EU Council, and respective Environment Ministers of six EaP partner countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine) to discuss areas of common interest and shared challenges on environment, including the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements.

Georgia’s complicated relief is quite fragile towards natural disasters caused by climate change. Geographical location, meteorological conditions, high anthropological pressure on the environment and limited mechanisms to minimize the damage create conditions for disasters such as floods, heavy rains, erosion, drought, wildfires and heat waves. In the last decade, Georgian mountainous regions, such as Mtskheta-Mtianeti, Racha-Lechkhumi, Achara and Guria, have been affected by natural disasters. In fact, between 1995 and 2011 the total amount of damage occurred in consequence of geological and hydro–meteorological natural disasters amounted to GEL 2.338.5 million, according to the National Environmental Agency of the Ministry of Environment Protection of Georgia.

But being a developing country with 92% of its electricity generated by environmentally sound hydropower, 43% of the Georgian territories covered by forest eligible for support, and with national greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions only about 0.03% of global emissions, climate change and environment have not been key issues of political discussion inside the country. The recent deadly flood, which hit the capital city Tbilisi on June 13 killing 21 people and dozens of zoo animals, and which resulted in GEL 100 million financial damage, helped the country to become more alert on environmental issues.

On June 27, Grigol Lazriev, Head of 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 (INDC)” at the EU-funded project “Clima East” Riga workshop, said Georgia plans to step up its efforts to combat climate change. For the first time Georgia’s INDC includes GHG mitigation commitment.

The country “is committed to reducing unconditionally 15% of its GHG emissions below business as usual (BAU) by the year 2030. Emissions intensity per unit of GDP will be reduced by around 37% from 2013 to 2030. As for the conditional reduction, the 15% commitment could increase up to a 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,” Lazriev said.

Georgia cannot avoid disasters caused by climate change, but full commitment to the global efforts to combat the phenomenon, and national political insurance-related mechanisms, will be necessary to dampen the negative effects of natural disasters and to minimize financial risks in the years and decades to come.

Nino Japarashvili