GEORGIA: DEMARCHE ON AMENDMENT ISSUES AT LRTAP

UNCLAS TBILISI 002315 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON ETRD SENV GG SUBJECT: GEORGIA: DEMARCHE ON AMENDMENT ISSUES AT LRTAP CONVENTION DELIVERED REF: STATE 125329 ¶1. (U) Poloff delivered reftel demarche to Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resource's Head of Sustainable Development Department Revaz Enukidze, and Head of Integrated Environmental Management and Biodiversity Department Nino Tkhilava on December 8. Georgia is currently not party to any of the eight protocols of the Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution (LRTAP). Their first priority is to ratify the EMEP Protocol, with no plans to pursue ratification of the POPs Protocol, or any of the other protocols, in the next two years. The government's primary obstacles to ratification are old technology, inability to measure emissions and inadequate legislation. In terms of the proposed amendments to the POPs Protocol, Tkhilava stated that they will not oppose any of the new substances. She further stated that because there is no production of chemicals in Georgia, the issue of complying with the protocol is not related to the commercial use of any of the proposed substances, but the fact that they are not able to measure emissions. Tkhilava suggested that in order to speed the ratification process of the protocols for Georgia and other economies in transition, the convention should adopt different schedules for developed and developing countries, as exists in other international treaties. LOGSDON