Green Climate Fund €33m grant to help Georgia's forest reform, greenhouse emission reduction
The grant is the latest in projects involving Green Climate Fund in financial support for Georgia. Photo via Green Climate Fund.
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Georgia will receive a €33m grant from Green Climate Fund for efforts in developing forest waste utilisation and contribute to efforts for reducing greenhouse emissions, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture revealed on Wednesday.
To be used for a multi-element forest sector reform, the grant will be used to create forest waste processing infrastructure for producing biofuels from the material and improve local populations' access to the resource.
Local governments and residents in seven municipalities in Tianeti and Kakheti in the east and Guria province in the west will be involved in operating small-size processing plants to produce the biofuels.
Environment minister Levan Davitashvili said at the presentation of the grant and the project the effort would help in provision of forest resources for locals from a single source.
Davitashvili also told the audience of foreign diplomats and local government representatives the ministry had restoration of degraded forests as its priority for improving their health and, subsequently, climate conditions.
The Green Climate Fund grant will be provided to institutions in Georgia through the German Federal Enterprise for International Cooperation (GIZ), which is also involved in ECOserve, a project of management of natural resources and safeguarding of ecosystem services for sustainable rural development in the South Caucasus.
The GCF itself was set up by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change a decade ago and is involved in helping developing countries reduce greenhouse emissions. The fund has provided a total financing of about $107 million to Georgia through four projects so far.
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