What greenhouse gas certification means in Georgian law
In international practice, certification of greenhouse gases is often associated with voluntary markets and trading schemes. Georgia has no such standalone certification statute — this must be said plainly, at the start. What does exist is a mandatory system established by the Law of Georgia on Environmental Protection: the authorization of greenhouse gas emissions and the regime of monitoring, reporting and verification. That machinery is what a Georgian company should understand as greenhouse gas certification: a state-issued authorization, an annual report, and verification by an independent verifier. This page explains in detail how the system works.
The building blocks of the system are three. Emission norms, which set limits on the release of harmful substances into the environment. Authorization, which legalizes a specific activity as a source of greenhouse gases. And the verifier — an independent person who examines the annual report. Together the three form precisely what international terminology calls monitoring, reporting and verification.
Permissible limit norms for emissions
The permissible limit norms for the emission of harmful substances into the environment and for pollution of the environment by microorganisms are developed for each specific source of pollution, taking into account its technological features and the background pollution of its location, in such a way that the concentration of emitted substances and microorganisms on site does not exceed the permissible limit concentration level. These norms are determined once every five years by the relevant regulation, which the ministry elaborates and approves.
From the climate standpoint the law sets a separate rule: for the purpose of protecting the climate of the earth from global changes, the subject of an activity is obliged to observe the norms for the emission into the atmosphere of gases causing the greenhouse effect and to carry out measures for their reduction. The release of gases causing the greenhouse effect is regulated on the basis of the integrated system of environmental pollution control. This is the legal hook that connects your facility to the climate regime regardless of any voluntary market scheme.