RP to host international environment gab

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine government, through the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, will host this year’s Southeast Asia and the Pacific (SEAP) Network Meeting of Ozone-Depleting Substance Officers this week.

To be held from April 26 to 29, the event at the Dusit Thani Hotel in Makati City is expected to be attended by some 30 participants from 12 different countries who will discuss policy, strategy and progress of action plans to enable countries to comply with their obligations under the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is an environmental agreement among 196 countries where members have committed to reduce and eventually eliminate their production and consumption of ODS such as chlorofluorocarbon and hydrochlorofluorocarbon which are both used as cooling agent as refrigerators and air-conditioners, blowing agent for foam, and as solvent. HCFC is used as fire extinguishing agent. Both groups of chemicals are also greenhouse gases which contribute to climate change. 

The Montreal Protocol is considered as the most successful international agreement to date, because it is the only one that is ratified by all 196 countries of the world. The Protocol has been responsible for the 100 percent phaseout of CFC production and consumption in the world. 

Moreover, because of the Protocol, the world has avoided the equivalent of 135 billion gigatons of carbon dioxide equivalent between the 1990 and 2010, equivalent to about 13 percent of accumulated emissions of carbon dioxide from human activities and delaying climate change by seven to 12 years.

Climate benefits

DENR Secretary Horacio Ramos said the Philippines has stopped the importation of CFC since Jan. 1 this year, and will be taking steps towards phasing out HCFC starting 2013.

Expected participants are ODS Officers from Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand, Timor Leste, and Vietnam. 

Among the topics to be discussed are the sustainability of the phaseout of CFC and other ODS, the HCFC phaseout management plans of SEAP countries, issues on ODS banks, chiller replacement projects, climate benefits of ODS projects, policy measures and identification of country needs.

The regional network is organized by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) under its Compliance Assistance for the Motreal Protocol which conducts network meetings twice a year to facilitate information exchange among ODS officers, implementing agencies, and resource persons.