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EVENT Report |
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MONTREAL PROTOCOL:
INDUSTRY OBLIGATIONS AND RESPONSE CALCUTTA MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION AUDITORIUM, Calcutta,
JUNE 5, 2002,INDIA
The Event
In
1972, United Nations General Assembly decided to celebrate June 5 as World
Environment Day to raise environmental awareness and to encourage action to
protect the environment. This year, to commemorate the occasion of World
Environment Day, on June 5, 2002, CUTS Centre for Sustainable Production and
Consumption organised a symposium titled “Montreal Protocol: Industry
Obligations and Response”. Objectives The
Montreal Protocol (MP) for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, 1987 came into
force in January 1989. Till date around 180 countries have ratified the MP.
The Protocol has also established a Multilateral Fund to assist developing
countries to phase-out the use of ODS. India
has ratified the MP in 1992 and operates as an Article 5 country. Following
its commitment, the Government of India has enacted ODS
(Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000. The ODS Rules fixes timeframes to phase
out ODS and also provide for compulsory registration of ODS producers,
manufacturers of ODS based products, exporters, importers, stockists and
sellers. But
to our much disappointment, the situation is not at all impressive in West
Bengal. Till mid week of May, out of 850 odd units in West Bengal only 70
units have registered themselves with Small Industries Service Institute (SISI),
the nodal centre for registration for units with annual turnover below Rs. 1
crore. (Those having annual turnover above Rs. 1 crore will have to register
themselves with Ozone Cell, Ministry of Environment & Forests, Govt. of
India, New Delhi.) The last date of registration is July 19, 2002. After
January 1, 2003, only registered units will be allowed to store and use ODS
like CFC 12 from market. Therefore, failing to register with SISI before July
19 would imply that around 780 units would go out of business after January 1,
2003. Feeling
the urgency of the situation, CUTS CSPAC organised this symposium targeting
small scale and medium scale industries in the RAC sector operating in West
Bengal to sensitise them about the ODS (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 so
that they get themselves registered with SISI before July 19 2002. Topics
for discussion
Participants City-based
experts on environmental issue, representatives from government bodies,
Chambers of Commerce, non-government organisations working on environmental
issues, academicians, media, students, different associations, refrigeration
and air conditioning companies, gas dealers and common people attended the
symposium. To
commemorate the occasion of World Environment Day, on June 5, 2002, CUTS
Centre for Sustainable Production and Consumption organised a symposium titled
“Montreal Protocol: Industry Obligations and Response”. In
the welcome address, Dipankar Dey, Director, CUTS, pointed out that as
Montreal Protocol sets common responsibility on developed and developing
countries to phase out ODS but with different timelines, some multinational
companies taking advantage of this have either transferred obsolete technology
to India or have been continuing with ODS in their Indian factories. He
mentioned that CUTS has been actively involved to expose the double standards
of such multinational companies. While implementing a project on Ecofrig, CUTS
found that few multinational companies were trying
to promote their products as environment-friendly under the pretext of using
ODS-free technology. But actually they were using hydro-fluoro-carbon (HFC),
which has been identified as green house gas as per Kyoto Protocol.
Importantly, in Europe and certain parts of America most of these
multinational companies were producing and selling ozone-friendly hydro-carbon
(HC) based refrigerators, popularly known as Ecofrig. HC has negligible global
warming potential. In this regard, he congratulated Godrej, a leading Indian
company for bringing first Ecofrig to Indian consumers.
Here he also mentioned that CUTS strongly believes that leapfrogging to
HC technology from CFC would be more rational and economic for the industry.
Thus, industry would be able to avoid the painful exercise of double phase out
from CFC to HFC and then to HC. Before
starting the session moderator Dr. Jayanta Basu mentioned about the letter
that Sri Nirupam Sen, Minister in charge, Dept. of Commerce and Industry,
Govt. of West Bengal wrote wishing the success of the symposium. After
introducing the four distinguished panelists, Dr. Basu asked Ms. Soumi Ghosh
of CUTS to give a brief background of Montreal Protocol and India’s
position. Ms. Ghosh informed that although during the mid-to-late seventies there was an effective consumer boycott in many developed countries against CFC propellants but concerted international action did not occur until 1985 when the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer was opened for signature in Vienna on 22 March. Interestingly, the year of the opening of the Vienna Convention coincided with the first discovery of the ozone "hole" over Antarctica. The unexpected discovery of this disturbing indication of the effects of ozone depletion contributed to comparatively quick international action, including the limits and time-frames set out in the Montreal Protocol, which called for a fifty percent reduction in CFC production by 1999. She mentioned that as per the protocol’s requirement, India is now in the compliance period of the MP and is required to reduce this consumption to 3340 MT in 2005 and 1002 MT in 2007. Following its commitment, the Government of India has enacted ODS (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000. But as pointed out by her, a major barrier for implementation of the ODS (Regulation and Control) Rules, 2000 is inadequate awareness among small-scale and medium-scale industries using ODS. Hence, there is a need to sensitise such business units. Shri
D.K. Pal, Deputy Director, SISI after congratulating CUTS for taking this
effort briefly described the registration process. While describing the
procedure he regretted that it is a pity that only 80 units out of 803 units
in the RAC sector have registered with Small Industries Service Institute. He
mentioned that in spite of sending letter and application form to each of them
as well as personally meeting them it has been of no use. Seminars have also
been organised, but people concerned did not come in spite of the seminar
being free of cost. He accepted the fact that they have failed to make the
people understand the need of registration. He admitted that manpower shortage
and scarcity of funds were problems behind such performance. Mr.
Arnab Bagchi, Manager (Services) made the presentation on Godrej’s role in
bringing Ecofrig to Indian consumer. Mr. Bagchi said that Godrej Appliances
Ltd. has decided to use Hydrocarbons as a replacement for the CFCs used (Feron
11 & Feron 12) after a lot of trials, study and analysis. Some of the
benefits of using HC as mentioned by Mr. Bagchi are that HCs are very commonly
used in Europe, which implies that availability is abundant. These are easier
to handle, particularly for servicing. Also there is a phase out date for HFCs.
So GAL opted for HCs, which is the final one-shot change-over. Mr. Bagchi
pointed out that Godrej, known for its national commitment by providing the
Indian consumers with reliable products and after sales service has tried to
pass out many benefits to the consumers by adopting HC technology.
Refrigerators using HC technology gives low energy consumption. “The
market sales figure of Pentacool range, i.e. CFC free refrigerator indicate a
favourable response and thus encourage us to believe that the Indian consumers
have now accepted the CFC free refrigerators,” he said. Mr.
D.V. Lamba, President of Eastern Indian Air Condition and Refrigeration
Association blamed Government for not doing enough to create awareness about
the necessity to go in for registration. He stressed on the fact that the
small businesses constitutes an important part of refrigeration industry as
they offer servicing facility to consumers at large. Without them, the whole
servicing industry of refrigerator would collapse as two crores users across
the country still own old CFC based refrigerators. He pointed out that as
smaller service and repair firms lack exposure and awareness, they have to be
properly communicated through one-to-one correspondence. He also mentioned
that as per Rule 2000, if any unregistered firm uses ODS then it will be
subject to 5 years imprisonment. HIDECOR has provided fund for training of the
small-scale industry and individual mechanics. In southern and western India,
they have already trained 1000 mechanics. Mr. Lamba mentioned that Calcutta
would be having training programmes very shortly. S.K.
Das, Vice President, Federation of Medium and Small Industry, first
congratulated CUTS for taking this effort. He said that Government is not
doing enough. He also suggested that government could have central workshops. Apart
from distinguished panelists as mentioned above, the symposium was attended by
experts like Prof. Sujay Basu, Director, School of Energy Studies, Jadavpur
University, Prof. Nabinananda Sen, Dept. of Business Management, Calcutta
University, Shri. Souvik Banerjee, Manager, Environment Management Centre,
Indian Chamber of Commerce and Shri. Tapan Roy, Federation of Associations of
Cottage & Small Industries. The
symposium culminated with the objective to contribute towards honouring our
commitment in Montreal Protocol by making the environment ODS free. In this
regard, an eleven-point resolution has been taken and a core committee has
been formed where CUTS was requested to play the role of the convenor. For
more: Resolution
taken at the symposium. 3.00
pm:
Welcome Address 3.15
pm:
History of Montreal Protocol and India’s position 4.15
pm: Godrej’s
role to bring Ecofrig to Indian consumers, 4.15-4.30
pm: Break 4.30
pm:
Role of Industry 5.00
pm: Importance
of capacity building for the small and unorganised sector 5.30
pm: Question-Answer session Moderator:
Dr. Jayanta Basu
Vote
of Thanks: CUTS
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