Core area “Climate and energy, just transition” Fostering renewable energy, making urban development sustainable
In the past few years, the country has already significantly increased the capacity of its energy sector with support from Germany. The BMZ has supported energy sector reforms in Georgia since 2018 through a loan via KfW Development Bank which has so far totalled 199 million euros, in cooperation with Agence française de développement (AFD) and the EU, and it is providing advice to Georgia's government on how to meet its ambitious climate and energy targets.
As a result of the energy sector reform, Georgia has been able to launch key legislation and national development plans on topics such as energy efficiency and the development of an energy market. Georgian-German cooperation now focuses on boosting energy efficiency in public buildings, promoting renewable energy and reducing power loss in transmission systems.
Modernising municipal infrastructure, developing new transport strategies
The second focus of Germany's activities in this core area is sustainable urban development. Increasing urbanisation, paralleled by inadequate planning of necessary urban infrastructure, has led to an investment backlog in Georgian municipalities that goes back several decades. In large parts of the country, the drinking water supply and wastewater and waste management systems are inadequate. The same goes for transport infrastructure.
Over many years, Georgian-German development cooperation in this field has focused on modernising and expanding the entire drinking water and sanitation system of Batumi, the country's second-largest city, which is a port city on the Black Sea and an important tourist destination in the region. Some 230,000 people there now benefit from reliable safe drinking water supplies. The great increase in the number of tourists visiting Batumi, which is thanks, not least, to these improvements, has helped to secure 60,000 local jobs.
In order to reduce the volume of garbage and greenhouse gas emissions, the BMZ is also providing support, through KfW Development Bank, to the development of a functioning waste management system and circular economy.
Efforts are also under way in the capital, Tbilisi, and – on a smaller scale – in Batumi to pursue new approaches for urban transport systems that are climate-friendly and environmentally sound. The focus of these activities will be on innovative systems for effective traffic guidance, the expansion of local public transport, and efforts to foster bicycle and pedestrian traffic.
As at: 08/06/2022