What Pollution Control Permits Regulate
Pollution control permits in Georgia rest on the normative system established by the Law of Georgia on Environmental Protection, which unites environmental protection norms, qualitative norms of the state of the environment, permissible emission limit norms, and the environmental decision — the administrative act without which most pollution generating activities become unlawful. This page explains how that system is constructed, who approves the individual norms, and how it translates into an understandable permitting process for your enterprise.
It is important to realise that a permit in this field is not the name of a single document: it is a combination of normative and administrative mechanisms. First, environmental protection and quality norms are established; then, on the basis of those norms, an emission limit is developed for each source; and finally an environmental decision is issued, which gives all of this its legal form. Understanding the sequence matters, because each stage builds on the previous one and an error at an early stage propagates through the entire permitting chain.
The System of Environmental Protection Norms
The purpose of establishing environmental protection norms is to determine norms for the impact of activities on the environment that ensure the ecological balance of the environment. To this end, the law provides for five groups of norms: qualitative norms of the state of the environment; permissible limit norms for the emission of harmful substances into the environment and for pollution of the environment by microorganisms; norms for the use of chemical agents in the environment; ecological requirements for products; and environmental load norms.
This structure means that pollution control is not confined to air emissions: it covers water and soil, physical impacts, chemical agents, and the ecological requirements attached to products themselves. For an enterprise this implies that compliance must be checked in every direction, not only against the parameters of a single emission. A plant may fully satisfy its air emission limits yet still face obligations arising from noise norms, soil quality norms or ecological requirements for its products.
Qualitative Norms of the State of the Environment
The qualitative norms of the state of the environment are: permissible limit norms for the concentration of substances harmful to human health and the natural environment and for the quantities of microorganisms in atmospheric air, water and soil; permissible limit norms for noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and other physical impacts; and permissible limit norms for radiation exposure.
These qualitative norms are determined once every five years, by the regulation on qualitative norms of the state of the environment, which is developed and approved by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs of Georgia, in agreement with the ministry responsible for environmental protection. The intersection of health and environmental policy is clearly visible here: sanitary hygienic quality requirements and environmental standards are coordinated with each other, and an enterprise must satisfy both simultaneously. For facilities located near residential areas, the physical impact norms — noise, vibration and electromagnetic fields — are frequently the determining factor in permit conditions.
Per-Source Permissible Emission Limit Norms
The heart of pollution control is the principle of individual limits. 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 concrete 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 at the site does not exceed the level of permissible concentration.
These norms are likewise determined once every five years by the corresponding regulation, which is developed and approved by the ministry responsible for environmental protection. Thus each source has its own calculated limit, renewed on a five year cycle, and it is precisely these limits that form the substantive core of the environmental decision. Enterprises planning technological upgrades should assess the effect of the upgrade on their emission profile against the current limit, because the limit — not the historical emission level — is the binding benchmark.
The Environmental Decision as the Permitting Act
In order to carry out an activity on the territory of Georgia, taking into account the ecological, social and economic interests of society and the state, as well as the protection of human health, the natural environment and cultural and material values, an environmental decision is required. Before an environmental decision is issued, in order to identify and study the possible impact on the environment, the environmental impact assessment procedure is carried out in accordance with the Environmental Assessment Code, and the questions connected with the issuance of the decision are likewise determined by that Code.
In practice, the environmental decision is the document that reflects the emission limits of your facility, its technological parameters and its monitoring requirements. Preparing the application with appropriate precision before submission is critical, because defects revealed during the assessment procedure lead to refusal of the decision or to more demanding conditions. The principles of public participation and accessibility of information are particularly relevant at this stage: society is entitled to take part in the process of adopting significant decisions, and information about the state of the environment is open and accessible, which means third party observations can shape the outcome of the assessment.
The Integrated Environmental Permit and Upcoming Changes
Legislation in this field is being renewed. A norm has been introduced under which an integrated environmental permit becomes mandatory for activities subject to it under the Law of Georgia on Industrial Emissions. This norm enters into force on 1 September 2026, and the questions connected with it — in particular which activities fall under the permit — are determined by the Law on Industrial Emissions.
The change means that enterprises holding pollution control permits should assess in good time whether they will move to the integrated regime and prepare their applications in line with the new requirements. For enterprises planning the construction of new facilities, experienced legal support is decisive in preparing the application correctly, once, and in conformity with both the current and the future regime. Early alignment with the integrated permit framework avoids duplication of procedures and secures continuity of the right to operate through the transition.