Events and Exhibitions
DISPOSA BAN AND
HFC PHASE-DOWN
PUT ON HOLD (FOR NOW)
By Ilana Koegelenberg
During the last HCFC stakeholder meeting, government communicated that the
disposa ban will not be included in the current regulation amendment and that
the development of the HFC phase-out management plan and regulations are
currently on hold.
T
he quarterly stakeholder meeting took place on 6 March at
the Department of Environmental Affairs’ (DEA) head office
in Tshwane. The meeting room was packed with stakeholders,
particularly from the wholesale and supply market, who wanted
to have their say in terms of the potential banning of disposable
refrigerant canisters.
But there were many other important issues to discuss as well,
including the ratifying of the Kigali Amendment, the setting up
of the mobile refrigerant reclamation machines, and the training
of the informal refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) sector, as
government calls it. •
NEW WORK PROGRAMME Currently, the draft amendment of the ODS regulation is
with the DEA minister who will publish it for comment.
After much debate (and quite a hold-up), it was decided
to remove any mention of the proposed disposa ban from
the draft regulation update, as this issue could not be
resolved quickly and was holding up the publishing of the
update.
The current draft of the updated regulations (minus the
disposa ban) was shared in the meeting. It mainly deals with
the fact that HCFCs cannot be imported without a quota and
the inclusion of the ASHRAE names for all listed HCFCs.
There was a query from the floor about how to report
illegal importation or selling of HCFCs from companies
without quotas. Molefe asked that any illegal activity be
reported to the DEA or the Compliance Monitoring division.
One of the suppliers noted that illegal imports can be
identified by the cheap price thereof, because by following
the legal routes, there is no way to bring the price down
that much.
It was also noted that China was getting stricter in terms
of exporting without quotas and that it was most likely the
illegal imports were coming from across our borders.
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Training of informal servicing technicians (400 trained by
March 2020);
Reduction of HCFC consumption by 30% of the baseline
(December 2019);
Ratifying of the Kigali Amendment (March 2020);
Reporting of HFC consumption (June 2019 to March 2020);
Important meetings — locally and internationally —
concerning the Montreal Protocol; and
Ad hoc activities awareness raising (including a World
Ozone Day event for 2019).
DRAFT ODS REGULATION AMENDMENT
This was the first meeting for 2019 and it was chaired by Margaret
Molefe, DEA’s director: Hazardous Chemicals Management.
According to Molefe, one of the main goals of this meeting was to
address the work programme for the new year and to share new
ideas for the financial year starting in April.
As mentioned, there was good representation from industry
at the meeting, including a variety of stakeholders, government
representatives, and associations.
The new work programme for 2019/20 was shared, highlighting
the key causes and missions of this particular meeting for the
upcoming financial year. It also pinpointed time frames for each
activity as well as who would be responsible for it in terms of
championing it.
This included another HCFC Phase-out Management Plan
(HPMP) roadshow, to take place by the end of 2019.
The programme also included timelines for the:
• Mobile refrigerant reclamation machine pilot study project (to
start June 2019);
• Amendment of the Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS)
Regulations (to be finalised by March 2020);
• Customs and environmental inspectors training (by end 2019);
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RACA Journal I June 2019
www.hvacronline.co.za