RAC Policy to be developed

A group photo of participants who attended the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) workshop in Nairobi.

New environmentally friendly technologies will be adopted in the refrigeration and air conditioning sector with the aim of eliminating greenhouse gas emissions. Principal Secretary, Charles Sunkuli said this when he officially opened a Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) Policy Workshop in Nairobi yesterday.

The objective of the workshop was to present and discuss the Technology Roadmap that was developed on the grounds of the RAC Green House Gas Inventory. Participants discussed recommendations of the inventory for appropriate policy and legislative interventions with the relevant stakeholders for inclusion in the policy development process.

Kenya is a signatory of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that deplete the ozone layer and has substantially contributed to global efforts to mitigate climate change, considering that most of the substances targeted by the Protocol are also potent green house gases (GHG). Kenya has made considerable progress in phasing out Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) in most applications.

In his address, Sunkuli reiterated that implementation of this process ought to be tackled collectively at the global level to ensure that an environmental problem addressed does not create another challenge as some alternatives to ozone depleting substances have high global warming potential (GWP) that have detrimental effects on climate.

High global warming potential (GWP) substances are expected to be phased down and replaced with low GWP alternatives as stipulated under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The Kigali Amendment was adopted in October 2016 to gradually phase out the consumption and production of ozone depleting substances.

Principal Secretary Charles Sunkuli (left) with National Ozone Unit Coordinator Marindany Kirui during the one day workshop at Fair View Hotel.

Modern cooling technologies lead to low energy consumption and operate using natural refrigerants that do not have any negative impacts on both the Ozone Layer and Climate. Currently, most of the refrigeration and air conditioning equipment in the country are generally inefficient as they are mostly based on obsolete technologies.

This situation is worsened by the fact that the alternatives that are ozone layer and climate friendly are not readily available in the country. Moreover, trained Refrigeration and Air Conditioning (RAC) Service technicians are inadequate.

 To address this challenge, the National Ozone Unit in collaboration with GIZ Proklima and training institutions have conducted several trainings for RAC technicians on safe use of natural refrigerants used in the sector that are both ozone and climate friendly. These natural refrigerants include hydrocarbons, carbon dioxide and ammonia, among others.

Recently, the two agencies donated modern cooling and ozone and climate friendly equipment to 5 (five) training institutions for capacity buiding.