The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer binds all countries of the world to withdraw eighteen hydrofluorocarbons, causing severe warming, from circulation.
The document has been ratified by 129 countries, including Turkmenistan.
Turkmenistan is developing a project plan for the six-year transition phase for the use of new refrigerants, according to the Ozone Center of the Ministry of Agriculture and Environmental Protection.
гидрофторуглеродов.
The plan will include options for large businesses such as pumping out and restoring waste substances that, after purification, have over 98 percent of the quality of a comparable new product, as well as replacing prohibited freons with allowed freons with similar technical parameters.
Hydrofluorolefins, including the most recent innovation, R-1234YF and R449-A, which is already supplied to Turkmenistan, are among the refrigerants of the new generation. Now cars work mainly on R-134A, which is a powerful greenhouse gas, and therefore it is also subject to replacement with an alternative freon.
By 2047, Turkmenistan will completely switch to new brands of equipment running on other freons that are neutral to ozone and climate.
So, until 2025, the Ozone Center plans to create a training platform in Ashgabat for technicians on the basis of the Yagshygeldi Kakayev International University of Oil and Gas, where the lecturers will be the university teachers. In the future, such training centers will appear in the regions.
A national association of refrigerators is being considered, and its members—including business owners—would receive legal and consulting support.
Furthermore, taking into account the country’s accumulated reserves of spent freons, it is planned to establish a collection, recycling, and subsequent return to circulation. Enriching the domestic market with additional volumes of refrigerants will reduce the import of such mixtures.
Turkmenistan has banned the supply of obsolete equipment containing banned R-22 since 2015. Its use is now maintained through quota-based imports. The quota for R-22 is 80 tons, licenses for its supply are issued by the Türkmenhimiýa Concern.
Turkmenistan imports refrigerants from China, Turkey and the UAE. At the same time, the system of bilateral transactions is strictly regulated.
The current practice of issuing environmental passports serves as another control mechanism. The Ozone Center’s specialists classified the refrigerants used in the country by toxicity, properties, and composition, and compiled a list of prohibited ODS for internal use. ///nCa, 19 October 2022