14 Sep 2017

Acting deputy permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Natural Resources Conservation and Tourism, Ms Oarabile Serumula says Botswana is in the process of rectifying the protocol of the Kigali Amendment.

The Kigali Amendment addresses the needs of individual nations, and gives each member state the opportunity to reduce global warming by half a degree centigrade.

Speaking during the commemoration of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer and launch of the Botswana Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Association (BRACA) in Gaborone on Wednesday, Ms Serumula explained that the rectifying of the amendment would confirm that Botswana was serious about taking action to protect the future of its citizens. She said combining the amendment with strong steps to promote energy efficiency could result in doubling the climate benefits and avoiding more than one degree Celsius of global warming.

She added that Botswana took pride in the Kigali Amendment because it was the first of the five amendments under the protocol to be made in an African country, adding that the amendment came at a significant time when Botswana had just signed the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Ms Serumula, who is also the director of Environmental Affairs, said as a party to the protocol, Botswana was required to control and subsequently phase out the use of ozone depleting substances.

“It is important that as a nation we support all initiatives that have been put in place to maintain the zero consumption of CFCs in Botswana, and assist the international community in the implementation of the phase-out schedule of the remaining ozone depleting substances which include Hydrochloroflourocarborns (HCFCs),” said Ms Serumula.

She noted that there were actions that the country could  engage in to protect the ozone layer, adding that the actions included using refrigerants that were ozone friendly, domestic, commercial and mobile air conditioning.

She added that other actions included desisting from backyard workshops that may engage in the use of substances that had been phased-out and advocating for good practices in the market such as correct labelling of equipment and substances that  were ODS user-friendly.

She called on companies and individuals to ensure that they only engaged technicians who were certified to handle refrigerants when repairing equipment.

She applauded the efforts of the National Ozone Unit under the Department of Meteorological Services for continuing to monitor ozone depleting substances (ODS) usage as well as undertaking awareness activities on ozone layer depletion.

In his welcome remarks, the acting director of Meteorological Services, Mr Othata Mmolotsi expressed his gratitude to the government for creating an enabling environment and taking action against ozone depleting substances.

Mr Mmolotsi said Botswana was one of the countries that had rectified the Montreal Protocol on substances that depleted the ozone layer in 1992, adding that Botswana also rectified all amendments under the protocol, most notably, the Kigali Amendment.

Meanwhile, BOCRA, which was established in 2014, exists to amongst others transfer technical information from the industry to members and ultimately the public. It also works on expanding the number of young professionals in the industry as well as to protect the ozone layer by promoting good refrigeration practices, recovery and reclamation.

September 16 was designated by the United Nations General Assembly as the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer. However, Botswana decided to commemorate the day on September 13 because September 16 would be a weekend.

The theme for this year’s commemoration is: Caring for all life under the sun. ENDS