16.05.2014 - Meeting of MNRE officials and UNIDO-Business working group

Upon the initiative of MNRE on May 16, 2014, a meeting of the Ministry’s officials with members of UNIDO-Business working group, established under the aegis of the UNIDO Centre for International Industrial Cooperation in the Russian Federation, was organized. The meeting was dedicated to issues of regulation of ozone-depleting substances use and consumption.

The Ministry was represented by G.A. Vatletsov, head of the department of state policy and regulation in hydrometeorology and environmental monitoring, M.P. Volosatova, section head of the same department, N.S. Makarova, senior specialist expert, and K.S. Kornoenko, section head of the legal department.

UNIDO-Business working group was represented by A.V. Kushnerev, UNIDO national consultant, M.V. Fomicheva, UNIDO national manager, V.N. Tselikov, UNIDO senior technical advisor, P.V. Kaplin, deputy executive director of the Association of Professionals in Industry of Climate (APIC), V.B. Sapozhnikov, member of the board of the Russian Union of the Refrigeration Industry, professor, doctor of engineering science, as well as heads and top managers of: ZAO Honeywell, OOO Marin-Trade Freon, PO Russky Kholod, Kholodon, OAO VNIIKhOLODMASH-HOLDING, VNII Priroda, GAOU UTs Professional, HaloPolymer, ZAO NORD-SM, OOO Tekhanaliz, ZAO Transcool.RUS, ZAO MARKON-KhOLOD, OOO TeknoNICOL Building Systems, OOO NPF TekhnoFtor, OOO Consulting and Management, OOO Dau Isolan, OOO Natana Group, ARKEMA France, Daikin Europe N.V., DuPont, etc.

One of the subjects were provisions of the Russian government’s decree No. 228 “On measures of state regulation of consumption and circulation of substances that depleted the ozone layer” dated 24.03.2014, and of other legislative instruments regulating the ODS use.

Besides, the participants discussed predicted production and use of hydrofluorocarbons in the Russian Federation in 2014–2016; refrigerant provision to special-purpose equipment designed for the defense and space complexes; need for development of own refrigerant production in efforts to retain technological self-sufficiency of the Russian Federation; and opportunity to use the Turkish experience in state accounting of produced, used, transported, stored, recuperated, reclaimed, recirculated, and destructed ozone-depleting substances.

In addition to draft addenda to the Customs Union’s technical regulations “On low-voltage equipment safety” (TP TC 004/2011) and “On machine and equipment safety” (TP TC 010/2011) relating to restrictions on ozone-depleting substances use, OAO HaloPolymer presented proposals on measures to implement the Russian government’s decree No. 228 “On measures of state regulation of consumption and circulation of substances that depleted the ozone layer.”

The meeting came to the following resolutions:

• to inform the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Industry and Trade, Ministry of Transportation, Federal Space Agency, Federal Atomic Energy Agency, Federal Fisheries Agency, Military-Industrial Commission under the Government of the Russian Federation, other federal executive bodies and undertakings concerned, on the need to stock ozone-depleting substances by 01.01.2015 due to mandatory reduction of use of ODS of Group I List C to 399.69 tons of ozone-depleting potential (i.e. by 90% of the basic level);
• to consider need for inclusion of labelling requirements for refillable and non-refillable refrigerant cylinders (including refrigerants that do not harm the ozone layer) in the course of development of proposed addenda to the Customs Union’s technical regulations with restrictions on ozone-depleting substances use;
• to recommend MNRE to initiate development of an electronic ODS accounting system basing on the successful practices of the Republic of Turkey and the EU countries;
• to recommend MNRE to carry out the following measures:
  • establishment of a state accounting system for fluorinated greenhouse gases basing on the successful practices of the EU countries;
  • imposition of a ban on non-refillable cylinders for fluorinated greenhouse gases;
  • development of economic incentives for reduction of fluorinated greenhouse gas emissions of manufacturing enterprises;
• to inform the Ministry of Industry and Trade on the need to accelerate conversion of Russian manufacturing enterprises to production of halons not covered by existing and future international agreements;
• to organize a meeting of officials of MNRE, the Ministry of Industry and Trade, Russian halon manufacturers, and public and private sector enterprises to specify the list of promising halons to be manufactured in the Russian Federation, and expected output;
• to recommend MNRE to establish a zero import quota for any HCFCs from 01.01.2015.