Today, on August 10, our team attended technical working group meetings regarding two important documents.
The meetings were held within the framework of the 2030 Climate Change Strategy of Georgia in order to update the climate action plans, which will be developed for 2024-2025.
One action plan was regarding reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transport sector by 15% by 2030 compared to the baseline scenario.
At the meeting, the representatives of the relevant agencies of the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture presented information about the tasks where, as of today, the greatest progress has been achieved, and also named the tasks where there is still a backlog. As it turns out, the biggest progress is in the share of hybrid cars registered in Georgia, where the baseline and target figures 4.9% and 20% respectively.
And for example, there is a lag, in the performance of a task, related to the percentage of travel in Tbilisi, which is carried out by non-motorized transport (cycling/walking).
The meeting focused on the importance of biofuel production and the promotion of such production.
They also discussed the activity that will be implemented in regard of traffic emissions management – this is the control of automobile emissions on the roads. Inspections will start from September 4 in 3 big cities of Georgia. 5 crews of the Department of Environmental Supervision will operate in Tbilisi, 2 of them in Kutaisi and 2 in Batumi, and 1 crew will work in Rustavi.
We also used this meeting to once again draw attention to the problem of transport between Rustavi and Tbilisi, which often encourages private car travel and has a negative impact on both air quality and traffic flows. In particular, we were interested if it is planned to take any concrete steps in this direction within the framework of the action plan.
We received an answer from the representative of the agency that this comment will be added to the action plan, will be discussed further, and its final reflection in the plan will be decided.
The second meeting was held within the technical working group for the Industry Sector and we were presented to the updated activities and indicators related to the Industry Sector part of the 2024-2025 Climate Action Plan.
The goal of this plan is to promote the development of low-carbon approaches of the industrial sector by 2030 by encouraging climate-smart and energy-efficient technologies and services, which should reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the industrial sector by 5%.