Following technical assistance from the ENI SEIS II East project, Georgia started reporting up-to-date data on air quality automatically to the EEA’s European Air Quality Index on a voluntarily basis in April 2019. The data are automatically calculated and displayed on the European Air Quality Index map. 

Online access to air quality data contributes to sound environmental governance. Reliable air quality data enable policymakers to take targeted action and make systemic links to policy interventions. Strengthening this capacity supports efforts to improve air quality monitoring and reporting. Poor air quality has considerable economic impacts: increasing medical costs, reducing workers’ productivity, and damaging soil, crops, forests, lakes and rivers.

Georgia launched its Air Quality Portal in January 2019. A network of automatic monitoring stations feeds near-real-time data to the portal and is fully aligned with the EEA system.

The EU Delegation to Georgia will include air quality in the annual action programme 2020. Air quality activities will become an important element of Georgia’s environmental policy, e.g. development of air quality plans, installation of new background monitoring stations, development of air quality modelling systems for cities where such a system is missing and support for establishing the national air quality reference laboratory.