Pan-African association U-3ARC warns that ‘environmental dumping’ stifles ability to adopt low-GWP and energy efficient technology
Refrigeration groups from across Africa have issued a joint statement calling on the global cooling industry to stop exporting obsolete equipment to the continent.
Pan-African cooling body U-3ARC has issued what it calls the Casablanca Declaration, calling for an end to the practice of exporting equipment that doesn’t meet F-Gas, Kigali or Ecodesign regulations to countries that haven’t yet adopted similar legal requirements.
The practice, known as ‘environmental dumping’, is denying the African cooling industry the opportunity to adopt lower-GWP efficient technology, U-3ARC said. “As developed countries improve the efficiency of their RACHP equipment, exporters from these countries may export their obsolete, unreliable and environmentally harmful equipment to developing countries.”
U-3ARC, which in representing 150,000 employees across Africa, is one of the biggest global cooling bodies. It said that a significant opportunity to develop the African cooling industry is being stifled by developed countries dumping their non-compliant equipment.
The organisation stated: “The RACHP industry is changing rapidly, presenting African states with a range of opportunities and challenges. U-3ARC can help African countries to capitalise on new business opportunities while stopping the dumping of new and used inefficient RACHP technologies with obsolete refrigerants that damage local climate and environments. As it expands, U-3ARC will create jobs focused on energy-efficient, low-GWP RACHP equipment. By creating these new positions, U-3ARC will not only bring economic and environmental benefits to African nations, but it will also mitigate the risks posed by environmental dumping as demand for inefficient imported equipment declines sharply across Africa.”
Ghana has been particularly active in trying to stop dumping, and the country is lobbying the developed countries on behalf of Africa at the next meeting of the Montreal Protocol parties in Canada on 31 October. The Ghanaian government has already seized 60,000 used units, U-3ARC said.
The group said that the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol and its plan to phase down HFCs globally will offer African industries a three-fold opportunity:
- Stop the dumping of inefficient used cooling appliances in Africa, which competes with new efficient equipment with low-GWP refrigerants like R32 and R290;
- Introduce latest energy efficient technology, where higher capital cost is ‘quickly offset by the lower running cost’; and
- Improve servicing to reduce leakage and avoid the future high cost of higher-GWP refrigerants.