The ‘Green Economy’ strategy presented to public by the Prime Minister of Georgia yesterday evening focuses on environmental protection to improve the ecology across the country and save natural resources for the next generations.
The government has two priorities in this strategy: neutralise the results of previously careless environmental management and preserve existing natural resources in a way to ensure that Georgia is perceived as a country with a green economy.
"I would say this is a new way of life which means we are taking care of the environment and share responsibilities while receiving fresh air, water and quality food instead,” PM Bakhtadze said adding the government is going to step by step tighten the environmental regulations to become closer to EU standards.
Improving the quality of atmospheric air is one of the top priorities.
The government of Georgia has already approved the atmospheric air standard, which will enter into force starting from August 1, 2018, allowing state bodies to measure the quality of the air in accordance with European standards. The evaluation system will be based on an already developed automatic monitoring network which is going to be widened.
At the same time a special web-portal will be launched where citizens will be able to get information about air quality in certain locations online.
PM Bakhtadze has presented his new initiative of Green Economy to public at Bioli medical wellness resort.
Another initiative by PM Bakhtadze is to appoint an environmental ombudsman and sustainable transport policy aiming to replace the faulty and deprecated public transport infrastructure.
Moreover, tighter regulations will be applied to petrol and diesel fuels in terms of measuring the contamination rate.
"As you know, diesel consumption is quite high in Georgia. Our proposal is to move to "Euro 4" from 1st of October and to "Euro 5" from 2020 meaning the sulfur content will be reduced 10 times in the fuel imported to Georgia,” PM said.
As for car imports, the government plans to introduce a taxation preference system for eco-friendly transport. For cars with large engines (more than 3,5 liters) accounting for almost 10 percent of the total number of transport vehicles in Georgia, taxes will be increased to stimulate the purchase of hybrid and electric cars.