This meeting has been organized by the Regional Montreal Protocol Network for Europe and Central Asia (ECA network) of UNEP Law Division's OzonAction Programme in cooperation with Ministry of Environmental Protection of Serbia, the national HVAC&R Association SMEITS / KGH and UNDP Serbia.
It is part of the regional network services which OzonAction's Compliance Assistance Programme (CAP) provides to Article 5 (developing) countries as an implementing agency of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol.
The meeting took place in parallel with the 50th International HVAC&R Congress and Exhibition organized by SMEITS / KGH taking place in Belgrade, Serbia, 4-6 December 2019. This allowed representatives of the national RAC associations / RAC experts to participate in selected sessions of the conference and learn about latest technology developments in industrial, commercial and domestic refrigeration and air-conditioning, safety.
In the past, similar approaches to arrange ECA meetings in parallel to international conferences proved to be successful and cost-efficient and exposed the RAC experts to the latest technology developments:
- 13th IIR Gustav Lorentzen Conference on Natural Refrigerants taking place in Valencia, Spain, in June 2018
- 7th IIR Conference on Ammonia and Carbon Dioxide Technologies in Ohrid, Macedonia FYR, in May 2017.
- 47th International KGH Congress and Exhibition on Heating, Refrigeration, and Air-conditioning in Belgrade, Serbia, in November 2016.
The ECA network has a longstanding cooperation with Serbia’s national refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) association SMEITS / KGH and has organized technology roundtables and exhibition booths as part of Serbia’s HCFC phase-out management plan (HPMP) at the SMEITS / KGH congresses since 2011.
In 2019, it is the 50th International HVAC&R Congress and Exhibition organized by SMEITS / KGH and UNEP has been selected to be awarded for the longstanding support and cooperation provided. The congress website is: http://kgh-kongres.rs/index.php/en/.
This event was therefore a welcome opportunity to allow Montreal Protocol officers and representatives of RAC associations / experts from the ECA region to participate in the International HVAC&R Congress and Exhibition organized by SMEITS / KGH and the technology roundtable organized by ECA OzonAction.
Background
The meeting took place in the context of the Kigali Amendment, which has been agreed by the parties to the Montreal Protocol in 2016. It aims to phase-down high global warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and transforms the Montreal Protocol into a powerful treaty for climate protection. It is expected to significantly contribute to the objectives of the Paris Agreement i.e. reducing the global warming by 0.4 degrees C by 2100.
It entered into force in January 2019 and introduced control measures for HFC production and consumption (baseline, freeze and gradual reduction steps), extended the licensing system requirements and reporting obligations to HFCs and will ensure financial support for developing countries to phase-down high global warming HCFs.
The first control measures for developing countries is the freeze in production and consumption of HFCs at the baseline level in 2024 for group 1 countries. Group 1 countries will achieve a 10% reduction in 2029 and a final reduction of 80% below the baseline in 2045.
As of November 2019, the Kigali Amendment has been ratified by 88 parties including Albania, Armenia and Montenegro. The countries are now focusing on setting up institutional and legal framework to prepare for the HFC phase-down under the Kigali Amendment. This includes the establishment of licensing and quota system for HFCs, enhancing training on the containment of HFCs and the safe use of HFC alternatives including natural refrigerants, adopting safety and performance standards, introducing certification schemes for technicians and log-books for RAC equipment. It also requires closer cooperation with national climate focal points and energy efficiency experts.
Outputs and impact
Meeting participants were acquainted with latest ozone- and climate-friendly technologies and attended the Ozone2Climate technology roundtable which was organized by UNEP and SMEITS / KGH as part of Serbia’s HCFC phase-out management plan (awareness component). They discussed recent technology developments and the relevance of energy-efficiency of RAC equipment for climate protection and the Kigali Amendment implementation. The participants had the opportunity to strengthen their networks with international RAC experts and among Montreal Protocol offers and representatives of RAC associations. It is expected that Montreal Protocol officers are in a better position to take informed decisions when setting policies and developing HCFC phase-out and HFC phase-down strategies. And representatives of RAC associations have in mind clearer roadmaps of necessary RAC sector actions to comply with the Montreal Protocol provisions.
Observations and conclusions
The conference organizer SMEITS KGH provided excellent logistical support in cooperation with UNDP Serbia. The ECA meeting was organized with rather short notice using additional CAP funding. It was attended by all ECA countries except Albania because of the emergency related to the earthquake. Additional experts included Mirjana Ilijin (UNIDO), Didier Coulomb (IIR), Alex Pachai (Johnson Controls), Kemal Fayraktar (REHVA, TTMD), Vasil Eftimov (RAC expert), Slobodan Peijkovic (SMEITS / KGH) and Tonko Curko (AREA, Croatian RAC association).
Following the presentations by the refrigeration and air-conditioning (RAC) experts on the situation and challenges in the RAC sector / servicing sector in their respective countries, Tonko Curko explained how Croatia, as a former developing country, managed to phase-out HCFC and to comply with the EU F-gas regulation once it had joined the EU. Didier Coulomb informed the participants about recent IIR initiatives and conferences.
Alex Pachai presented the world’s first H2O–NH3 heat pump system in Aarhus extracting heat from the harbour water and feeding it into the existing city district heating system. Aarhus is committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030 and the installation of the new system is part of the strategy.
Kemal Bayraktar brief participants about the activities of REHVA and the Turkish Society of HVAC and Sanitary Engineers and invited to attend REHVA conferences and exhibitions. Vasil Eftimov informed on the use of flammable and natural refrigerants in North Macedonia. Myahri Saparova provided feedback on the training of Turkmen RAC trainers on the safe use of alternative refrigerants in the regional training center in Yerevan, which took place the same week as the ECA meeting in Belgrade.
As part of the ECA network meeting, Slobodan Peijkovic arranged the site visit of the MediGroup Hospital in New Belgrade with energy-efficient R-410a water to water heat pumps providing space heating, space cooling and domestic hot water (DHW). The 200 kW heat pump system was installed in 2018 using R-410a as the refrigerant and extracting heat from the groundwater. There was some discussion on the choice of the refrigerant.
The RAC sector is crucial for the Montreal Protocol implementation. During the meeting, a set of 42 RAC sector actions has been reviewed to share information between countries on what type of actions are already taking place, are planned in the near future or not yet envisaged. The objective of this table is to provide inspiration and encouragement to apply good examples, to exchanges lessons learned and experience related to these RAC sector actions and to allow regional harmonization where applicable. The ECA tracking table on RAC sector actions is a living document that will be updated periodically. It is available in English and Russian and attached to the mission report (Annex I).
The agenda of the technology roundtable included presentations on CO2 air-conditioning in high-speed trains, trends in industrial refrigeration, heat pumps for cooling, heating and hot water production, ammonia heat pumps, monitoring energy efficiency, climate change, and HVAC&R systems, Kigali Amendment and OzonAction resources, implementation of enabling activities in Serbia, F-gas regulation and Real Alternatives initiative in Croatia, refrigerant recovery, recycling and reclaim (RRR), new manufacturing plant of ammonia systems in Serbia, using NH3 safely, water-water heat pumps, CO2 commercial systems using ejector technology, comparative analysis of electricity consumption, air-water heat pump modelling, comparative refrigerants study and R22 alternatives in ice ring applications.
Meeting documents
The tracking of the table of RAC sector actions is attached as Annex I. Meeting documents including the recommendations and presentations will be made available from the OzonAction website/meeting portal:
Contacts
Halvart Koeppen, Email: halvart.koppen@un.org
Mugure Kibe, Email: mugure.kibe@un.org
