Union des Associations Africaine des Acteurs de la Réfrigération et de la Climatisation
LE FROID, LA CLE DU DEVELOPPEMENT DURABLE
Récépissé de Déclaration d’Existence D’Association ( N°: N00000947001 )
PROTOCOL No.: 001/22-U-3ARC/BE/
All fifty-four African countries along with all other United Nations states have ratified the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol), which has already phased out chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) refrigerants depleting ozone layer and will soon phase out hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) such as R-22 and phase out ozone-friendly hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) greenhouse gas refrigerants such as R-410A under the Kigali Amendment. At the time of this writing, forty of the fifty-four African countries have already ratified the Amendment of Kigali.
As expected, the Kigali Amendment creates a business opportunity for refrigeration and air conditioning professionals to:
1) Stop the dumping of inefficient used cooling appliances in Africa, which compete with new efficient equipment with low Global Warming Potential (GWP) refrigerants like R-32 and R-290
2) Introduce the best new technology with energy efficiency so high that the added cost of equipment is quickly offset by the lower running cost
3) Improve service to reduce leakage and avoid future high cost of
HCFCs and HFC refrigerants phased out under the Montreal Protocol.
Established in 2020, the Union of African Associations Actors of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (U-3ARC) is made up of national associations from across Africa. U-3ARC has also then established channels of communication between f Refrigeration, Air Conditioning and Heat Pump Actors (RACHP), which includes representatives from fifty-four African countries. U-3ARC member companies import, manufacture, assemble, market, install and service residential and commercial RACHP equipment across Africa. The ambition of the U-3ARC is to provide its customers with quality equipment that is affordable, high performance and environmentally friendly. Accordingly, the U-3ARC advocates minimum energy performance standards (MEPS), product labeling, training and capacity building, installation and service best practices, and a policy designed to support a high employment rate and reasonable benefits. As the cooling equipment market expands rapidly in response to climate change, U-3ARC is a respected and influential voice in the development of African environmental and energy policy. U-3ARC will be even more important to its members by taking advantage of access to new technologies and funding under the Montreal Protocol.
Replacing old air conditioners containing obsolete HCFC and HFC refrigerants creates full-time, year-round jobs and continued business for qualified companies. U-3ARC member companies currently employ nearly 150,000 people and will continue to create full-time jobs across Africa. RACHP companies will create more jobs as they expand their operations, including delivering recovered refrigerants for destruction in local cement kilns and recycling metals and plastics.
U-3ARC could support its members in projects funded by the Multilateral Fund (MLF) for the implementation of the Montreal Protocol for training, capacity building and infrastructure development.
U-3ARC could also support funding that reduces the purchase price of high-efficiency equipment that reimburses the incremental cost of electricity savings over the life of the equipment.
While countries around the world develop and install highly efficient RACHP equipment, developing countries face a significant side consequence: environmental dumping. The Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development (IGSD) defines “environmental dumping” as including “the export of technologies that cannot legally be sold in the country of export due to failure to meet environmental, safety, energy efficiency or other products; and the export of technologies that are unusable in the country of export because the refrigerants are no longer available due to national regulations or phase-out and phase-down control schedules under the Montreal Protocol”. Thus, as developed countries improve the efficiency of their RACHP equipment, exporters from these countries may export their obsolete, unreliable and environmentally harmful equipment to developing countries.
African countries are particularly susceptible to the negative impacts of environmental dumping – between 2013 and 2020, the Ghanaian government seized nearly 60,000 used RACHP units.
Fortunately, the U-3ARC is poised to serve as a powerful defender against environmental dumping. U-3ARC expresses its support for the draft decision submitted by Ghana on behalf of Africa in 2021 to end environmental dumping in Africa. This draft decision was submitted to the Twelfth Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer and to the Thirty-Third Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. At the forty-fourth meeting of the Montreal Protocol Open-ended Working Group (OEWG) held in Bangkok from 11-16 July 2022, parties agreed to forward the draft decision “stop dumping” at the Meeting of the Parties scheduled for October 31 to November 4, 2022 in Montreal, Canada.
As the conflict in Europe continues to destabilize the price of electricity, the related goals of stopping environmental dumping and promoting efficient equipment are now more important than ever.
The RACHP industry is changing rapidly, presenting African states with a range of opportunities and challenges. U-3ARC can help African countries to capitalize on new business opportunities while stopping the dumping of new and used inefficient RACHP technologies with obsolete refrigerants that damage local climate and environments. As it expands, U-3ARC will create jobs focused on energy-efficient, low-GWP RACHP equipment. By creating these new positions, U-3ARC will not only bring economic and environmental benefits to African nations, but it will also mitigate the risks posed by environmental dumping as demand for inefficient imported equipment declines sharply across Africa.
As the refrigeration sector is strategic for the sustainable socio-economic development of Africa, U-3ARC intends through this declaration to play its role as an expert and informed actor in the field of refrigeration to support the vision of Agenda 2063 of the African Union.
PS: Our sincere thanks to Mr. Mohamed Rida Derder (Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development – IGSD) for his contribution to the activities of U- 3ARC
Casablanca, September 23rd, 2022
