POLICY PAPER - Air Quality in Georgia: Need for Urgent Policy

Rather immediate increases in economic activity and rising car ownership are expected to cause greater air pollution in Georgian cities until the trend reverses.2 Looking at the growth dynamics of the number of 2 The environmental Kuznets curve hypothesis suggests that environmental pollution increases at the beginning of economic growth. [...] ISET Policy Brief Series Page | 5 vehicles in Georgia, the trend is linear and upward-sloping: car ownership has been constantly increasing, by approximately 70,000-80,000 units per year.3 Notably, data from Geostat also highlights that only 7% of the vehicles owned in 2021 were hybrid or electric (significantly, the growth rate of the share of hybrid/electric vehicles in the total is decreasing). [...] The industry sector also egregiously contributes to total emissions throughout the city.4 Tbilisi typically dominates most economic and non-economic parameters among the cities of Georgia, thus, the fact that it is the most polluted city in Georgia hardly comes as a surprise. [...] The regulation of industry-released emissions includes instructions regarding the control of potential accidents at industrial sites and the procedures firms must go through during accidents to minimize the emission of hazardous into the atmosphere.5 In July 2018, the Government of Georgia introduced the air quality standard, which determines the target levels for different atmospheric substances. [...] ISET Policy Institute is the university-based think-tank and its affiliation with the International School of Economics (ISET) at TSU drives intellectual and financial synergies, as well contribution to delivering of world-class economic education, strengthening good governance and inclusive economic development in Georgia and in the region.