The Montreal Protocol successfully banned the refrigerants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which are substances that deplete the ozone layer. Unfortunately, their most common replacements, hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), are potent greenhouse gases, and can contribute to climate change, which is why those are now also on the chopping block in many climate-conscious countries, including St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

Janeel Miller-Findlay, Director of Environmental Management in the Sustainable Development Unit of the Ministry of Economic Planning, Sustainable Development, Industry, Information and Labour in St Vincent and the Grenadines, explains.

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When I was appointed as National Ozone Officer in 2004, we were not in compliance with the Montreal Protocol and had just a few months before my appointment gone to the Executive Committee of the Ozone Secretariat with an action plan to return to compliance. In a few short months, we were able to fulfill our obligations and went on to completely phase out CFCs, three years ahead of our target, and started to focus our attention on introducing energy-efficient, climate-friendly and ozone-friendly alternatives such as hydrocarbons.

Our country has a good reason to be ambitious about climate policy. We are a 32-island nation in the Eastern Caribbean that is vulnerable to climate-related natural disasters, such as floods, landslides and drought. We have lost a lot of our beach area over the years to sea-level rise and storm surges. Nonetheless, we feel fortunate: we often joke that God has to be Vincentian, since most hurricanes in our vicinity do not directly impact us.

We like to think beyond what is in front of us, so, when it was time to develop our HCFC Phase-Out Management Plan, we could not see the point of moving from CFCs to HCFCs and then HFCs, which are also greenhouse gases that many in the international community were discussing a ban on. We did a local market assessment and noticed that most of the appliance suppliers were already bringing in appliances that use hydrocarbons. We thought, why not go for an accelerated phase-out, and use hydrocarbons as our alternative? This would enable us to skip a second phase-out later—just cut out the middle, and go as close to the end as possible.

With UNIDO as our Technical Implementing Agency, we submitted our plan to the Executive Committee of the Ozone Secretariat. We said we’d go beyond the 35 per cent mandated HCFC phase-down by 2020, and we proposed a 100 per cent phase-out by 2025. They thought it was a bit ambitious, but I thought I know my market well enough, and I know my technicians. The committee approved it, and we went home and started implementing it right away. As it happens, we have already met our 2018 target two years ahead of schedule.

Training our technicians was essential. They were not familiar with hydrocarbons, so initially when they serviced appliances with hydrocarbons, most would replace the hydrocarbons with HFCs. Of the five main servicing companies in our country, three of them have sent all their technicians to our training. A few of the other companies’ technicians take their own initiative to attend. We have also partnered with other government and private-sector agencies to deliver training to their technicians over the years.

Because of the small scale of the industry, a lot of our technicians do one-off servicing. They come to us ask for our recommendation on certain jobs. Even if we are not getting full support from all of the companies, the individual technicians are doing their part.

We need to improve the supply of hydrocarbons. We have the equipment on the market, but sometimes no refrigerant to service it. We are also heading in the direction of technician certification, so that if you’re not certified you can’t legally purchase or use the refrigerant.

The National Ozone Unit now tests all refrigerants that enter at the port. UNIDO, our Investment Agency under our HPMP (HCFC phase out management plan), assisted with the provision of the equipment. We have had a few attempts at illegal imports.

I hope that more countries will try for an accelerated phase-down of HCFCs. If we can do it, other countries can do it, too.