In the late 1990s, the small island countries of the Pacific region had not yet fully implemented their commitments under the Montreal Protocol for several reasons, including their relatively late ratification of the Protocol and the priority of other environmental issues (such as climate change). Under an innovative UNEP-facilitated approach, a sub-regional grouping of Pacific Island Countries — Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Palau, and Vanuatu — proposed a total compliance plan for the entire sub-region. This simultaneous, sub-regional approach was seen as preferable to the usual sequential formulation of national implementation plans (“Country Programmes”) followed by institutional strengthening and project activities. They developed an umbrella regional strategy and associated national implementation plans to phase out ozone depleting substances (ODS) under the Montreal Protocol.
Under the Regional Strategy, the major activities are:
- Establishment of the focal points for this MEA: National Ozone Units/National Compliance Centres (NOUs/NCCs) (see case study in Guideline 24
);
- Development of national ODS regulations;
- Compliance by all Parties in reporting ODS consumption data to the Ozone Secretariat, Multilateral Fund Secretariat, and progress reporting to SPREP (seecase study in Guideline 14(c));
- Training of customs officers (see Guidelines 41(b), 43(b), and 49);
- Training of refrigeration technicians, through “train-the-trainer” programmes on good practices in refrigeration (see Guidelines 42, 43 and 49);
- Purchase of recovery and recycling equipment for core countries as identified after technician training;
- Regional thematic meeting on implementation of the Regional Strategy; and
- Public awareness activities (see Guidelines 30-[31] and 44).
The regional strategy emphasises sharing of information and experience among officers and agencies responsible for implementing the national programmes to comply with the Protocol. The strategy also seeks to improve import control mechanisms, trade monitoring by customs officers, and training of refrigeration servicing technicians to minimize ODS emissions.
The Strategy for the Pacific Island Countries was achieved with financial assistance and technical support from the Protocol’s Multilateral Fund, the UNEP/DTIE OzonAction Programme, the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP), and the Governments of Australia and New Zealand.
For more information, contact sprep@sprep.org.ws or Mr. Thanavat Junchaya (UNEP/ROAP) at junchaya@un.org