Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia

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The Government of Georgia approves the 2024-2025 Climate Change Action Plan.

Climate change and several related challenges are one of the top priorities of the world agenda. Georgia actively carries out all the activities linked to climate change adaptation and mitigation in compliance with international agreements and decisions.

In 2021, Georgia developed and approved a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) document outlining the target indicators for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, which aims to fulfill its obligations under the Paris Agreement of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the EU-Georgia Association Agreement.

The action plan outlines the steps that the country will take over the next two years to mitigate climate change in seven different economic sectors of the country:

⮚ energy generation and transmission;
⮚ transport;
⮚ buildings;
⮚ industry;
⮚ agriculture;
⮚ waste management;
⮚ forestry.
The total budget is GEL 3,694,328,186.

A ‘’significant share’’ of funding comes from infrastructure projects in the energy and waste sectors. In particular, the construction of hydropower, solar, and wind plants will be top priorities in the energy sector, while setting up new landfills and upgrading existing ones—including constructing urban wastewater treatment facilities—are essential in the waste sector. The action plan also embraced improvements in the following fields:

The transportation sector is also crucial, with a focus on promoting public transport (especially in Tbilisi) and non-motorized modes of transport (such as modernization of metro stations, fostering the development of cable-propelled transit system, designing bike lanes and adopting a technical mechanism for controlling the level of emissions from vehicles.

The agricultural sector focuses on improving the sustainable management of windbreaks and gradually adopting and promoting climate-smart agricultural practices through awareness-raising approaches.

In addition to planting and forest restoration initiatives planned for degraded areas, the special focus will be placed on enhancing sustainable forest management, which includes continuing the forest inventory, creating management plans for five distinct forest areas, and improving the forest information and monitoring system. The above-mentioned actions are intended to enhance the forestry sector's capacity to absorb carbon.

It should be mentioned that Georgia would have released 10-12% more greenhouse emissions into the atmosphere if the measures outlined in the new 2024–2025 and 2021–2023 Climate Action Plans had not been put into action.

The new two-year plan will allow us to keep the level of emissions at a 10-12% lower level since the effect of environmental measures implemented in 2021-2023 will result in reduced emissions, which will be added to the activities to be implemented in 2024-2025. 
This is especially important for Georgia, as a candidate country for EU membership, to achieve the ambitious goals outlined in the EU policy regarding climate change.

It is essential to mention that the document was prepared with the active involvement and participation of relevant agencies, and several public consultations were held with the involvement of all stakeholders.