The Fortieth Meeting of the Executive Committee decided to set up an open ended working group to discuss, in the margins of the 41st Meeting of the Executive Committee, ways to reorient the approach to RMPs to better facilitate compliance, with members chosen from both the Sub Committee on Project Review and the Sub-Committee on Monitoring, Evaluation and Finance as well as representatives of the Implementing Agencies.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/40/50, Decision 40/20, para. 60).
The Forty-first Meeting of the Executive Committee, in recognition of the fact that in certain cases Article 5 countries needed flexibility in implementing refrigerant management plans in order to reflect changing circumstances, decided:
(a) to recommend that bilateral and Implementing Agencies, in collaboration with Article 5 countries preparing and implementing refrigerant management plans, be given flexibility, within historically agreed funding levels, to implement refrigerant management plan components that are adapted to meet the specific needs of relevant Article 5 countries, and that planned changes to project activities be clearly documented and available for future monitoring and evaluation in accordance with Fund rules; and
(b) that in developing appropriate interventions, Article 5 countries and bilateral and Implementing Agencies should give consideration to:
(i) concentrating support on the development of legislation and coordination mechanisms with industry, where these are not yet in place, and on further training programmes for refrigeration technicians and customs officers, using existing national capacities and providing expert support and resources such as equipment and tools required; this should also include efforts to raise awareness of the value of skilled technicians for end users and for stakeholders;
(ii) also concentrating recovery and reuse of CFC on large-size commercial and industrial installations and mobile air conditioner (MAC) sectors, if significant numbers of CFC-12 based systems still exist and the availability of CFC is strongly reduced by the adoption of effective import control measures;
(iii) further exploring possibilities for facilitating cost-effective retrofitting and/or use of drop-in substitutes, possibly through incentive programmes;
(iv) becoming more selective in providing new recovery and in particular recycling equipment by:
a. establishing during project preparation a sounder estimate of the likely demand for recovery and recycling equipment;
b. delivering equipment to the country only against firm orders and with significant cost participation by the workshops for equipment provided, using locally-assembled machines to the extent possible;
c. procuring, delivering and distributing equipment in several stages, after reviewing the utilization of equipment delivered and verifying further demand; and
d. ensuring that adequate follow-up service and information are available to keep the recovery and recycling equipment in service; and
(v) monitoring the use of equipment and knowledge acquired by the beneficiaries, on an ongoing basis, through regular consultations and collection of periodic reports from the workshops, to be carried out by national consultants in cooperation with associations of technicians. Progress reports based on such monitoring should be prepared annually by the consultant and/or the National Ozone Units, in cooperation with the Implementing Agency, as provided for in Decision 31/48, and sufficient additional resources should be made available to allow for such follow-up and reporting work.
(UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/41/87, Decision 41/100, para. 162).