Hosted and moderated by ISET Policy Institute’s Salome Gelashvili, Acting Head of the Agricultural and Rural Development Policy Research Center, the German Sparkassenstiftung Southern Caucasus and Ukraine (DSIK) have recently developed a presentation looking into their Climate Risk Pattern Analysis in Georgia.

As waste accumulation keeps expanding, it increasingly poses a serious threat to human health and the environment. Waste can be the source of many diseases, it emits large amounts of methane (a potent greenhouse gas), and exacerbates global warming. According to World Bank estimates, without urgent intervention, the current levels of global waste will increase by 70% by 2050.

On 29 December 2020, the parliament of Georgia approved the state budget for 2021, which includes allocations of around 18.3 billion GEL. From which the Ministry of Environmental Protection and Agriculture (MEPA) will receive 451.6 million (2.5% of the total budget allocation). MEPA will direct 10 mln. GEL towards the Environmental Protection and Agriculture Development Program (2.2% of MEPA’s total budget), with around 389.6 mln. (86.3% of MEPA’s total budget) to be allocated to agricultural development, and approximately 51.9 mln. GEL (11.5%) to be spent on environmental protection.

In the modern world, plastic waste recycling has become one of the more crucial activities to combat environmental degradation. The plastic pollution portal from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) highlights that every year around 300 million tons of plastic waste is produced globally. Historically, 9% of the plastic ever produced has been recycled and 12% incinerated, with the remaining 79% going to landfills. Plastic is now truly found worldwide, including within our very food and water, and it is already negatively impacting both wildlife and human wellbeing.

Covid-19 has exposed many countries to severe healthcare and economic crises, which have disproportionally adversely affected the most vulnerable and low-income parts of society. The current pandemic crisis, however, has also brought some interesting opportunities to light.