DENR inks pact with private firm to boost efforts

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) has decided to partner with a private firm in its effort to rid the country of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and other ozone depleting substances.

As part of the national celebration of the International Ozone Day, Environment Secretary Ramon J.P. Paje will sign a contract with Delsa Chemicals and Multi-Products, a major importer and distributor of refrigerants nationwide, tomorrow (Monday).

“The recovery program for refrigerants is an important component of our National CFC Phase-Out Plan (NCPP). The intention here is to assist service shops of refrigerators, air conditioners and chillers, recover their refrigerants instead of just venting or releasing them into the atmosphere, which we now know is bad for our ozone layer,” he said in a statement issued today.

Paje said the private firm is being contracted to implement the CFC recovery program through the collection, transport and storage of recovered refrigerants from service shops and chiller owners and by providing the DENR’s Environmental Management Bureau (EMB) a monthly report of the ODS recovered.

According to the NCPP Project Management Unit (PMU) of the EMB-Philippine Ozone Desk (POD), an estimated two tons of recovered refrigerants will be collected monthly from service shops all over the country.

The Philippines ratified the Montreal Protocol in March 21, 1991 and committed to gradually reduce and eventually eliminate its consumption of ODS.

The country started to limit CFC importation in 1999 and implemented a quota system for CFCs since then. The government has banned the importation of CFC-11 in 2005 and starting January 1, 2010, it has also banned the importation of all CFCs, including CFC 12 or R-12, a widely used refrigerant in the country.

The EMB-POD adds that since January 1, 2007, the current CFC consumption in the refrigeration and air-conditioning sector has been reduced from 1,079 ODP tons to a maximum of 453 tons.

The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is a multilateral environmental agreement created on September 16, 1987. It is considered to be the most successful international agreement to date because all 196 countries ratified the Protocol. - By Michael Punongbayan (Philstar News Service, www.philstar.com)