Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, Aug. 6
By Huseyn Hasanov - Trend:
A seminar was held in Ashgabat on the provisions of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer and the Vienna Convention for the protection of the ozone layer, the "Neutral Turkmenistan" newspaper wrote Aug. 6.
The event was organized by the Ozone Center under the State Committee for Environmental Protection and Land Resources of Turkmenistan.
The seminar covered legislative measures to eliminate the prohibited and controlled ozone-depleting substances (ODS) from circulation, energy efficiency issues of new air conditioning units.
Freon is used for heating and cooling air in the transport sector, fire fighting, medicine, and other areas. In this regard, the search for alternatives to outdated and environmentally dangerous refrigerants continues, technologies for the effective use and utilization of such compounds are being created. The essence of the Kigali Amendment is the phased refusal of synthetic hydrofluorocarbon (HFCs) refrigerants, as they are greenhouse gases.
"In this regard, it is expected to return to the natural refrigerant - ammonia, widely used in the last century, the introduction of hydrocarbons – isobutane and propane, as well as carbon dioxide, which do not have a negative impact on the environment," the message says.
The Kigali Amendment has been ratified by 42 countries and will enter into force in 2019.
In recent years, the consumption of ozone-depleting substances in Turkmenistan has decreased significantly.
Turkmenistan ratified the Montreal Protocol in 1993. Since 2012, the state program on the withdrawal of hydrochlorofluorocarbons from circulation has been implemented, the purpose of which is to carry out activities that would allow using only recycled and recovered substances after 2020, and to achieve their complete withdrawal from circulation in the future, by January 1, 2040.