No more enterprise and no more project on making the products and equipment that may harm the ozone layer will be licensed in HCM City.
In a document sent to the local state management agencies on February 18, the city’s authorities requested the competent agencies to stop licensing new projects or allowing expanding the projects on the production and assembling of household use air conditioners, which have the capacity of 48,000 BTU and use R22 refrigerant.
The move aims to help reduce the demand for HCFC substances in Vietnam, which are believed to be harmful to the ozone layer, but they have been used widely in refrigeration engineering.
In the document, the city’s authorities also instructed the agencies not to grant new licenses to domestic businesses, joint ventures and 100 per cent foreign owned enterprises making thermal insulating foam using R141b.
From now on, the city begins restricting the installation of new refrigeration equipment using R22 in seafood processing, before a complete interruption is applied in the near future.
The ozone layer is described as the shield that protects life on the earth from the ultraviolet rays harmful to people’s health.
The ozone layer is in the danger because of the big volume of chemical people generate during the industrial production. Scientists have repeatedly urged to control the ozone layer destructive substances, saying that if drastic measures can be applied, the ozone layer’s hole would be fixed and it would return to the normal situation by 2060-2070.
Luong Duc Khoa, the coordinator of the Ozone Program under the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment’s Department of Hydrometeorology and Climate Change, said only some enterprises in HCM City, including Chinese invested ones, still make air conditioners using R22.
Most of the refrigeration equipments are made in other localities and then brought to HCM City for sale.
According to Le Khac Hieu, Deputy Head of the Department of Hydrometeorology and Climate Change, Vietnam will need $30 million from now to 2030 to support the enterprises when implementing the program to eliminate HSFC substances, harmful to the ozone layer.
Hieu said under the current regulations, the thermal insulating and refrigeration equipment manufacturers would be propped up 90 per cent of the total expenses for technology transfer.
The program would help encourage enterprises to apply the new technology using cyclopentane in some more years.
The government of Vietnam is taking steps to reduce the installation of equipments using HCFC-22 in seafood cold storage, the production of household use air conditioners using HCFC-22, while it is striving to control the import and export of HCFC substances.
According to Hieu, the moves to stop the use of HCFC show Vietnam is actively complying with the commitments of the Montreal Protocol signed in Canada in 1987.
Vietnam consumes some 3,200 tonnes of HCFC-22, more than 500 tonnes of HCFC-141b and nearly 7,000 tonnes of polyol mixed with HCFC-141b.
The consumption of the HCFC substances increases by 15 per cent per annum. Meanwhile, Vietnam has to fulfill its commitments to reduce the consumption volume by 10 per cent by 2015.
