4,575 Emissions Violations in Six Months: The Missing Denominator Behind the Headline

Between 1 January and 30 June 2026, environmental inspectors identified 4,575 cases of vehicle emissions exceeding established standards in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi and Rustavi.

Tbilisi recorded 2,699 cases, Batumi 821, Kutaisi 694 and Rustavi 361. Passenger cars accounted for 2,634 violations and minibuses for 1,837; trucks and buses made up the remainder.

The first-half count equals about 76% of the 6,016 violations identified during all of 2025. That could reflect worse vehicle condition, more driving, better targeting, more inspections or a combination.

The Department says it increased the number of teams, acquired hybrid inspection vehicles and expanded monitoring capacity. More enforcement can produce more detected violations even when the underlying non-compliance rate is unchanged.

To estimate prevalence, the public needs the number of vehicles stopped and tested in each city, by vehicle class. Violations divided by tests would produce a fail rate.

Without that denominator, comparing Tbilisi with Rustavi mostly compares city size and inspection activity. It does not establish where a randomly selected vehicle is most likely to fail.

Minibuses produced 1,837 violations against 2,634 for passenger cars. Without registration and inspection counts by class that comparison cannot be read as a rate, but the pattern may indicate greater mileage, older diesel technology, targeted enforcement or higher non-compliance.

A meaningful analysis needs tests, kilometres travelled and fuel type by class. Raw counts alone cannot identify the cause.

Publish tests, failures, failure rate, repeat violations, vehicle class, fuel type, model-year band, city and inspection location. Show the number of active teams and hours of enforcement.

Then the programme can be evaluated on compliance: whether repeat failures decline, whether repairs are completed and whether roadside concentrations improve. More tickets are evidence of activity, not automatically evidence of cleaner air.