Ready, steady, go: Africa and the Kigali Amendment

The Kigali Amendment will come into force on January 1, 2019, and countries around the world will need to start cutting their consumption and production of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCS) – potent greenhouse gases used in cooling and refrigeration. For many countries this is both an opportunity and a challenge.

A new report released today looks at what a HFC phase-down means for Africa, and the unique opportunity the continent has to move directly to sustainable low -or zero- Global Warming Potential (GWP) solutions and the associated economic growth, regulatory stability and positive societal change that comes with it.  

HFCs are some of the most powerful greenhouse gases created by man. These gases are hundreds to thousands of times more powerful than carbon dioxide (CO2) at warming the atmosphere. The Montreal Protocol is the world’s most successful environment treaty and has successfully eliminated ozone depleting substances over the last 30 years. The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol builds on this success by using the Protocol to target HFCs.

The report, by the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) with support from the Italian Government, uses data collected from interviews and surveys with National Ozone Units, a special Africa workshop held in June, and UNIDO’s long standing experience from more than 1,000 projects in developing countries under the Montreal Protocol regime.

The report looks at Africa’s needs for the effective ratification, implementation and enforcement off the Kigali Amendment and the conditions needed for it to be a success. Based on country interviews it considers identified priority areas like capacity building for policy makers, training, HFC alternatives technology, energy efficiency, public private partnerships, and gender balance and inclusion of women and youth in the growing refrigeration and air conditioning sector. A special annex on “Tech Specs” provides expert advice on available low- or zero-GWP technologies, the opportunities and challenges associated with each, their energy related issues, and how to make an informed choice based on a technology’s total environmental impact.

Francesco La Camera, Director General for Sustainable Development, Energy and Climate at the Italian Ministry of Environment said now is the right moment to identify zero or low-GWP alternatives to avoid the introduction of high-GWP HFCs.

“The demand for air conditioning and refrigeration is constantly growing, particularly from developing countries,” Mr La Camera said. “The introduction of environmentally friendly solutions will allow the Parties to comply with the downstream obligations under the Montreal Protocol.”

Most countries believe that the Kigali Amendment’s impact on their development will be manifold, strongly affecting environmental performance, the type and quality of future products, economic growth, and cooperation with other countries. A third of National Ozone Units interviewed expect difficulties in ratifying the amendment and see the need for capacity building to increase synergies with energy and climate change policies, update environmental legislation, strengthen work with standards bodies, prioritize sectors for a fast HFC phase-down and identify market barriers for low-GWP systems is needed.

Training the workers in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector, customs officers and end users consistently features highly on the priority list for African countries, given that low- or zero-GWP refrigerants are often flammable, toxic or work under excess pressure. In a successful training scheme in the Gambia, “super technicians” ensure others are properly trained. The issue of illiteracy, common in Africa’s rural areas, is addressed by attaching stickers with pictograms on refrigerant cylinders and air conditioning units to provide guidance on safe handling, upcoming equipment checks, or a substance’s verified purity. Besides universal kits for theoretical and hands-on training, uniform certification schemes in line with international best practice are the next step to take. Effective measures to raise skill levels in Africa’s refrigeration and air conditioning sector are varied, and include train-the-trainer schemes, smartphone applications, study tours, and pilot conversions.

Most Africa countries consider the introduction of safety and energy efficiency standards a matter of urgency, but progress to create minimum energy performance rules, standards and classifications has been slow. The main causes are low enforcement of national standards, the lack of state of the art technology to comply with such standards, and overall a low involvement in international standardization committees.

Increased border protection and customs training is also a priority. A specific concern for Africa is illegal imports of fake, mixed or otherwise improper refrigerants. To beat this Tanzania is increasing cross-border cooperation, capacity building for customs officers, a systematic use of refrigerant identifiers, and pressure on importers via strong refrigeration and air conditioning associations.

Most National Ozone Units are confident that low- or zero-GWP refrigerants alternatives are already economically competitive due to their total environmental impact, energy efficiency and performance, safety and reliability, and life cycle cost. In fact, African countries show more confidence than those from other world regions, especially for the domestic refrigeration sector. Nonetheless, the lack of low-GWP refrigerants and technology available on the continent undermines faster progress. Among the tools that can accelerate the changeover are national replacement schemes for consumers, product labelling, HFC import quotas, and minimum energy performance standards.

A key success factor for the Kigali Amendment will be countries selecting technologies that are more efficient than the ones that they replace. Given that energy efficiency accounts for up to 90 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions from refrigerators and air conditioners, saving energy is one of the cheapest ways this sector can contribute to the environmental cause.

Modibo Sacko, Mali National Ozone Office said: “I would like to launch a call here to everybody, that we cannot reach the Sustainable Development Goals for 2030 as long as we do not put in place now the Paris Agreement or the Kigali Amendment. If we manage to have the same enthusiasm for the Amendment… I think we may be able to save our planet.”