EVENTS AND EXHIBITIONS
INCORPORATING COLD CHAIN
phasedown of the disposables. DEA
made the point that stakeholders must
remember that there is more to the
amendment than just the section on
disposa cans and urged everyone to look
closely at the document for comment.
DRAFT WORK PROGRAMME
PRESENTATION
DEA has also compiled a draft work
programme to guide the HCFC
stakeholders in terms of what they are
working on long term. “This is to measure
our efficiency and whether we’re
meeting our targets,” explained Lutendo
Ndlovu of DEA during her presentation
of the programme that had previously
been circulated to stakeholders for
comment already.
The programme gives an overview
of the main targets, progress on these,
expected timelines, and who is responsible
for championing it. Most of the categories
are already on the regular agenda to be
discussed in each meeting.
It includes important items such as these:
• HPMP roadshow planning (done);
• Mobile refrigerant reclamation
machine (in progress);
• Amendment of ODS regulation (in
progress);
• Customs and environmental inspector
training (ongoing);
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Training of informal HVAC&R servicing
technicians (want to train 400 by
March 2019);
HCFC management of consumption
(must monitor that consumption does
not exceed 25% of baseline);
HFC management (ratifying the Kigali
Amendment and HFC consumption
reporting);
Important meetings, locally and
abroad — compiling position papers
(Open-ended Working Group meeting
and Meeting of the Parties); and
Ad hoc activities and awareness
raising (tariff classifications; Chemical
Summit; compliance monitoring on
ODSs; and World Ozone Day).
The meeting schedule was also reviewed,
with the last meeting of the year being
on 6 December and the last one for the
financial year on 6 March 2019.
On the point of awareness, a question
was raised by an Eskom representative
about what to do with old R22 HVAC
equipment. Although there are programmes
in place for the switching out of old
equipment and the recovery of refrigerant, it
seems that this has not been marketed well
enough and many are still confused about
what they should actually do with this. The
short answer: recover the refrigerant and
strip the equipment for scrap.
Another stakeholder raised a point in terms
of participation of international initiatives
such as World Ozone Day and why South
Africa has not become more involved with
this. DEA explained that although we have
taken part in this particular initiative in the
past, there was no funding for it this year.
There was consensus around the table
that in future, when we do plan to take
part in initiatives such as World Ozone Day,
DEA needs to table ideas at the meeting
sooner and get industry involved; not only
for funding, but to see what ideas they
might have.
HFC MANAGEMENT
Although the stakeholder meeting is
currently predominantly focused on
the HCFC phase out, the looming HFC
phasedown is also on the agenda as the
first-world countries have already started
this process. South Africa is due to officially
start our phasedown in 2024, but there is a
lot that still needs to happen before then
— such as determining our baseline.
DEA gave an update on our progress in
terms of ratifying the Kigali Amendment to
the Montreal Protocol regulations. Cabinet
has approved but it has not been tabled
to the National Assembly yet. The late
minister was pushing this but obviously,
things are uncertain now. Although the
National Assembly rose in August, this had
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not been on the agenda. They are pushing
to get a date to table it at the next sitting.
The amendment comes into effect on 1
January 2019 and DEA would like to have
it ratified by then. UNIDO advised that they
are willing to assist financially to speed up
the process.
Gift Molokwane of DEA gave a
presentation on HFC consumption figures
based on the 1 January 2015 to 31
December 2017 period. But it is important
to note that these figures were based
on DEA’s recommendations and not on
the actual figures of what came into the
country. He showed import and export
trends, noting that 68% of exports to the
rest of Africa was in the form of R134a.
The stakeholders and DEA alike were
not comfortable with the accuracy of
these figures and it has been noted that in
the next meeting, the actual import data
should be obtained from the South African
Revenue Services (SARS) and presented to
the meeting. The main concern is that up
until recently, HFCs such as R134a did not
have its own tariff classification, so it would
be impossible to determine how much of it
was really imported.
Michael Labacher of A-Gas raised the
global issue of R404A and R507C, which
has a higher global warming potential
(GWP) than the rest of the HFCs. The
rest of the world is phasing down these
COLD LINK AFRICA • November/December 2018