Report of Public Defender on atmospheric air pollution

Public Defender Nino Lomjaria presented a special report on atmospheric air pollution in Georgia and talked about the importance of the right to clean air, problems in this direction and the ways of solving the problems. The meeting was attended by the director of the foundation “Partnership for Road Safety”. The case study showed that despite the positive steps recently taken in the country, the protection of atmospheric air remains a challenge, which is caused by many circumstances. The situation in the transport sector is aggravated by the annual increase in the number vehicles in the country and the high number of old vehicles (more than 45% of vehicles are older than 20 years). Full technical inspection has been launched since 2019, but it does not provide for the control of the existence of major pollutants, and mainly nitrogen dioxide and solid particulates, in the exhaust gas, which is a significant gap of the system. The Ministry of Internal Affairs does not have an effective mechanism for detecting the vehicles that have passed periodic technical inspection as a result of one-time superficial repair, but still emit hazardous gas. The municipal transport is gradually replaced by new vehicles in the capital, however, it should be noted that buses use diesel fuel, the quality of which cannot meet the EU standards and thus creates a threat of air pollution.