Scope of the Law, Key Concepts and Principles
The Georgian law on environmental protection creates the legal foundation on which the entire system of environmental protection and natural resource use is built. The law treats the environment as the unity of the natural environment and of the human-modified (cultural) environment, encompassing interdependent living and non-living elements, natural and anthropogenic landscapes. The field of environmental protection covers the protection of atmospheric air, water, land, subsoil and biodiversity, the use and reproduction of natural resources, the regulation of waste, and chemical, nuclear and radiation safety. The concept of environmental information is broad: it covers data on the state of the constituent elements of the environment, on energy, noise, radiation, waste and emissions, as well as on measures and activities that affect or are likely to affect the environment.
When planning and implementing activities, state authorities and physical and legal persons are obliged to be guided by the basic principles of environmental protection. Among them are the risk-reduction principle — the obligation to take measures to prevent or reduce harmful effects on the environment and human health; the sustainability principle; the principle of paid nature use — the use of land, water, forests, flora and fauna, and subsoil is subject to payment; the polluter-pays principle — the activity subject must compensate the damage caused to the environment; the principles of preservation of biodiversity, waste minimization, recycling and restitution; and the principles of environmental impact assessment, public participation in decision-making and accessibility of information. These principles form a mandatory framework both for the regulator and for business.
Citizens' Rights and Duties in Environmental Protection
The law grants a citizen the following rights:
- to live in an environment harmless to and healthy for his or her health;
- to enjoy the natural environment;
- to receive complete, objective and timely information on the state of his or her working and living environment;
- to receive environmental and ecological education and to raise the level of environmental awareness;
- to unite in environmental non-governmental organizations;
- to participate in the discussion and adoption of significant decisions in the field of environmental protection;
- to receive compensation for damage caused to him or her by the non-fulfilment of the requirements of environmental legislation;
- to demand in court the alteration of decisions on the siting, design, construction, reconstruction and operation of ecologically dangerous objects.
At the same time, duties are imposed on the activity subject: in the course of an activity, the requirements of ecological safety and of the protection of the population's health must be met, and environmental protection measures, the rational use of natural resources and environmental restoration measures, together with the financial means needed for them, must be provided for. The activity subject is obliged to have plans for urgent and systematic measures for the prevention and prophylaxis of the consequences of technological accidents and natural catastrophes agreed with the relevant state bodies, to create and keep in readiness a service equipped with technical means for accident liquidation, and to notify the relevant state bodies and the population in a timely manner of every expected or occurred technological accident and natural catastrophe.
Competence of State Bodies and of the Ministry
The competence of state authorities in environmental protection is defined by the Constitution of Georgia, by this law and by other normative acts. The environmental monitoring system and the legislation on land, subsoil and natural resources fall within the exclusive special jurisdiction of the highest state bodies of Georgia. The central role belongs to the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture: it implements state policy in environmental protection, exercises state management and control of environmental protection and the use of natural resources (except oil, gas and natural hydrogen), organizes the monitoring of environmental pollution, regulates nuclear and radiation activity, monitors the radiation background in the environment, develops the policy for the establishment, functioning and management of the system of protected territories, monitors biological diversity, ensures access to environmental information, prepares the national report on the state of the environment and the national environmental action program, organizes climate-change adaptation and mitigation measures, and organizes waste management. The Ministry also issues permits related to commercially protected wild species, ozone-depleting substances and waste.
Environmental Taxes and Compensation of Damage
Flowing from the principles of paid nature use and polluter pays, taxes are established in Georgia for harmful effects on the environment, for the use of natural resources, and other taxes. The structure, amounts and payment procedure of these taxes are determined by a law of Georgia, in the manner established by the Constitution. What matters is that the payment of taxes does not release the activity subject from the obligation to compensate the damage caused to the environment. The limitation period for a claim for damage caused to the environment is 10 years from the moment the right of claim arises; that right arises from the moment the controlling body learned of the damage and of the person obliged to compensate it.
Environmental Audit and the Monitoring System
An environmental audit is an analysis, carried out by the activity subject, of compliance with the requirements of environmental protection legislation and with environmental norms — including those established by the subject itself — and of the effectiveness of the management of the nature-use system. It covers the entire production-technological cycle and is conducted for the purpose of the ecological assessment of the activity and of identifying losses of consumed natural resources and the ways and means of minimizing harmful effects on the environment and waste. The audit is conducted on the initiative of the activity subject or by decision of the Ministry in special cases established by the legislation; where it is conducted by decision of the Ministry, the Ministry bears the associated costs. Representatives of the public have the right to familiarize themselves with the results of the audit, provided the requested information does not contain a state, commercial or production secret.
The environmental monitoring system is the unity of the analysis and forecasting of information obtained through observation; its general coordination is carried out by the Ministry, and the results of monitoring are available to the public. The legal regime of the observation system is determined by Georgian legislation.
Environmental Norms — Quality, Emissions, Chemicals, Waste
The qualitative norms of the state of the environment are: the maximum permissible norms of the concentration of substances harmful to human health and the natural environment and of the quantity of microorganisms in atmospheric air, water and soil; the maximum permissible norms of noise, vibration, electromagnetic fields and other physical impacts; and the maximum permissible norms of radiation exposure. These norms are determined once every 5 years by a regulation developed and approved, in agreement with the Ministry, by the Ministry of Internally Displaced Persons from the Occupied Territories, Labour, Health and Social Affairs.
The maximum permissible norms of the emission of harmful substances into the environment and of environmental pollution by microorganisms are developed for each concrete source of pollution, taking into account its technological features and the background pollution, and are likewise determined once every 5 years by a regulation of the Ministry. The norms for the use of chemical agents in the environment are set so that no danger is created for human health, for the plant and animal world or for the soil; these norms, too, are fixed once every 5 years in a regulation, and a unified state registry of chemical substances is established for their accounting and control. With respect to waste, the activity subject must ensure the prevention, collection, recovery and placement of waste in compliance with environmental, sanitary-hygienic and epidemiological norms and rules. The placement and burial of waste is allowed only at specially designated places; radioactive and other hazardous waste — only at places specially designated for that purpose. The placement of any waste in the sea and in other water bodies is prohibited.
The Environmental Decision, Strategic Assessment and State Control
For the purpose of taking into account the ecological, social and economic interests of society and the state, and of protecting human health, the natural environment and cultural and material values, an environmental decision is required for carrying out an activity on the territory of Georgia. Before its issuance, in accordance with the Environmental Assessment Code, the environmental impact assessment procedure is carried out; the matters related to the issuance of the decision are likewise determined by that Code. In the cases provided for by the Environmental Assessment Code, a strategic document is subject to strategic environmental assessment, and a strategic document subject to such assessment that was adopted or approved without the procedures provided for by the Code is void.
State control in the field of environmental protection and the use of natural resources is exercised, within the powers granted by the legislation, by the Ministry, the Department, the Agency of Protected Territories and the Agency of Nuclear and Radiation Safety — public law legal entities within the Ministry's system — as well as by the state forest management body. The Department carries out inspection, which includes planned or unplanned checks of the object of regulation and its surveillance. A check is based on an individual administrative-legal act issued by the Minister or by the head of the Department; its appeal does not suspend the check, while surveillance does not require such an act. In the border zone, the periods of checks are agreed with the Border Police. The imposition of liability on the perpetrator of an offence does not release him or her from the obligation to compensate the damage caused to the environment.