Trading in Credits — the Absence of a Regime and the Real Machinery
Trading in carbon credits is not regulated by separate legislation in Georgia: there is no emissions-trading scheme, no national registry of credits and no issuance rule. What genuinely exists in law — and forms this page’s foundation — is the machinery of emission control and measurability: authorization, monitoring, reporting and verification. This machinery creates no trading market, but it is precisely what supplies a project with the data on which the value of any credit stands; so a discussion of credit trading is in reality a discussion of the quality of this measurement apparatus.
Definitions — the Language of Measurability
The law’s definitions fix the concepts by which the world of emissions is measured: integrated control — a pollution-regulation system resting on the integrated control of pollution of land, water and air; best available technology — the balance of effectiveness and economic accessibility; and the verifier — a person accredited to verify the annual greenhouse-gas emissions report by the unified national accreditation body or by a conformity-assessment body accredited within the framework of European accreditation cooperation. That definition enters into force from 1 January 2028. In other words, the national system of verifier accreditation is still taking shape, and every participant must reckon with that environment.
The content of the authorization application is likewise determined by law: besides the information contemplated by the General Administrative Code, the application must contain a description of the installations and activities, including technologies, that may cause greenhouse-gas emissions; information on the raw and auxiliary materials whose use may cause emissions; information on the emission sources determined by government decree; a draft monitoring and reporting plan; and a short non-technical summary of all of this — executed in non-technical language, with graphical or illustrative materials where necessary. The authorization, besides the general requirements, contains the name, identification number or personal number and address of the activity subject; a description of the activity and the emissions; the monitoring plan, composed in conformity with the requirements determined by government decree and approved together with the decision; and the obligations connected with reporting. This detailed list is precisely the data on which subsequent verification stands — and accordingly, the apparatus that underpins any credit.