ATLANTA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 16 January 2019 — In the margins of the ASHRAE Winter Conference and in the presence of members of the ASHRAE Associate Societies Alliance (AASA) representing more than sixty international refrigeration and air-conditioning engineering associations from all continents, ASHRAE and United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) OzonAction launched their sixth biennial joint workplan under the theme “Refrigerant Management for Developing Economies.”
This theme recognizes the important role that refrigeration and air conditioning plays in developing countries both in terms of societal benefits – ranging from protecting the food supply to vaccine storage to cooling for increased comfort and productivity – to environmental goals, including compliance with international commitments. The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, as well as the Paris Climate Accord, figure among those agreements in which refrigeration and air conditioning “punches above its weight” in terms of the potential environment gains. Sound management of refrigerants is a critical activity for achieving environmental benefits and has the added advantage of enhancing business competitiveness and increased professionalism in those who work in the sector.
For more than a decade, ASHRAE and OzonAction have been working together to promote the adoption of state-of-art technologies and practices in developing countries that avoid or replace ozone depleting substances and that also have lower global warming potentials. The two international bodies also promote techniques that help eliminate emissions of refrigerant gases during servicing of refrigeration and air-conditioning applications.
ASHRAE is the largest engineering society in the world that focuses on the refrigeration and air-conditioning sectors, with more than 55,000 members and 211 chapters worldwide. UNEP is an Implementing Agency of the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund and its OzonAction Branch assists 147 developing countries to meet and sustain their compliance obligations under the treaty.
This new joint workplan, which covers 2019-2020, is designed to ensure best outreach and use of products and materials developed over the last few years. Among them is the ASHRAE-UNEP E-Learning courses on refrigerant knowledge and practices, that were jointly developed and made available to developing countries, and now the phase of translating them into other UN languages started with the launch of the Spanish version of the Refrigerant Literacy Course. The French version will follow during first quarter of 2019 while the E-Learning programme will be also converted in different formats like face-to-face workshops, webinars, briefing notes, etc. This will allow wider and better access to the knowledge by different groups and through their preferred interface.
The Atlanta meeting also provided the opportunity for the two organisations to launch a major new initiative that was initiated under the last workplan: the Lower-GWP Innovative Award (https://www.ashrae.org/technical-resources/lower-gwp-refrigeration-air-conditioning-innovation-award) which promotes innovative design, research and practice, recognizing individuals and teams who have developed or implemented innovative technological or concepts that apply to developing countries aiming at advancing lower global warming potential refrigerants. Submission of entries for the 2019 awards will be accepted between January 2019 and 15 May 2019.
All of the products and services included in the joint workplans are offered free of charge and accessible to National Ozone Units and certain refrigeration and air conditioning sector stakeholders in developing countries through ASHRAE and UNEP OzonAction.
For more information:
Ayman Eltalouny
International Partnerships Coordinator
UN Environment Programme
OzonAction
Email: ayman.eltalouny@un.org
W. Stephen Comstock,
Manager of Business Development
EMEA, ASHRAE
Email: comstock@ashrae.org
