Georgian Environment Minister meets Czech, Japanese counterparts in Dubai

Otar Shamugia, the Minister of Environmental Protection and Agriculture of Georgia, on Monday featured in the United Nations Climate Change Conference hosted in the United Arab Emirates, and met counterparts from the Czech Republic and Japan at the event. 

As part of the Conference, Shamugia joined a meeting held at the invitation of Japan's Environment Minister Ito Shintaro, where he praised cooperation between the governments of the two countries within the Joint Credit Mechanism.

The deal signed in 2022 involves Japan contributing to the achievement of the nationally determined contributions of the two countries by decarbonising technologies and infrastructure in Georgia under the JCM.

Shamugia said a joint committee consisting of representatives of the two governments to implement the JCM was in planning, and added the committee would meet to formalise project cycle procedures and allow implementation of emission reduction projects within the JCM.

In meeting with the Czech Minister Petr Hladík, Shamugia noted his Government had “successfully cooperated with the Czech Development Agency in research and development of caves in protected areas for many years”.

[This] meeting will contribute to an even more dynamic development of cooperation”, he said, and noted the Government was anticipating the European Council’s decision this week on whether to grant the country the European Union membership candidate status.

Photo: Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture

In just a few days, the European Council must make a decision on the candidate's status. Georgia has taken appropriate steps to fulfil the conditions that are important for candidate status. We had tangible progress, which was reflected in the analytical report of the European Commission published last year”, the Georgian official said.

In his turn, Hladík noted his country was supporting Georgia in European integration and expressed readiness to cooperate in fulfilling environmental protection obligations.

Although it is important to have appropriate legislation, to share principles, and to join many common goals of the EU [...] the path that Georgia has taken in this rapprochement process is also important, and we are happy with this achieved result”, he said.

Hladík invited Shamugia to his country to discuss deepening the cooperation, the Ministry said.