The Minister of Environment and Natural Resources, Miguel Ceara Hatton, valued the Dominican Republic’s progress in complying with the Montreal Protocol, developing actions focused on the protection of the ozone layer.
“We have demonstrated great successes in the implementation of these agreements throughout its three decades of existence”, said Ceara Hatton, when he left, together with Inka Mattila, resident representative of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and Juan Matos, of the National Institute of Professional Technical Training (Infotep), a workshop on the socialization of the Strategic Plan of the Dominican Republic for the Reduction of the Consumption of Gases and Equipment with Hydrofluorocarbon Substances (HFCs).
Ceara Hatton considered the implementation of the Kigali Amendment as a challenge for the country, given the current onslaught of climate change around the world.
“To achieve the results that present and future generations depend on, we need everyone’s efforts. Every action counts,” he told workshop participants studying technical career in refrigeration and air conditioning.
“We always say that we must turn sustainability into culture,” he said, noting that today, clearly, “we see how the issue of climate change is transversal and has actions in all sectors,” said the minister.
“The best example was what happened on November 18. That is why all Dominicans have to commit ourselves to the defense of sustainability in the Dominican Republic. If we do not do so, we are going to pay a very high price,” he asserted.
Meanwhile, Inka Mattila highlighted the leadership of the Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources, through the team of the National Program for the Protection of the Ozone Layer, to guide and mark the approach of the roadmap, to ensure that it responds to the priorities of the country.
“From UNDP we have put at the service of the country our local and regional team with expertise on this issue, along with ideas, solutions and inspiration from our network of more than 170 countries that, we hope, contributed to ensure that this HFC phase-out strategy responds to the guidelines and guidance of the Montreal Protocol,” said Mattila.
Meanwhile, Juan Matos, director of the Metropolitan region of Infotep, emphasized that the workshop is a call to the conscience of all the people who work with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), “for the correct use of these products that have an impact on global warming”.
Matos thanked the donation made by the Ministry of Environment, stating that these teams are of great importance for the training of participants who learn the trade in refrigeration workshops.
HFCs are substances used in the refrigeration sector, controlled by the Montreal Protocol, specifically in the Fifth Amendment, approved in Kigali, Rwanda, called “Kigali Amendment” and ratified by the Dominican Republic, as they have high global warming potential.
The workshop was also attended by Indhira de Jesus, Deputy Minister of Environmental Management; the director of vocational schools of the Armed Forces and the National Police, Jorge Morel de Dios, and the president of the Dominican Association of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Technicians (Adomtra), Juan Luis Gutierrez.
The training is part of the guidelines developed by the MMARN, with UNDP support, for the preparation of plans to reduce consumption, gases and equipment with HFC substances, which includes a national strategy to meet the freezing of consumption and reduction in the first stage of consumption of this substance in the Dominican Republic.
During the opening of the workshop, Environment delivered licenses to several refrigeration technicians, 26 teaching modules to strengthen career laboratories, Infotep, the Ministry of Education of the Dominican Republic (Minerd) and the Directorate of Vocational Schools of the Armed Forces and the National Police and 109 kits to contribute to capacity building to those who have already received such environmental accreditation.
This represents an investment of 4.6 million pesos, thanks to financing from the Multilateral Fund of the Montreal Protocol and technical assistance from UNDP.
On the first day of training, the students learned about new actions and strategies for the implementation of the Kigali Amendment from UNDP international expert Agustín Sánchez. They also learned about compliance with Multilateral Environmental Agreements (Amumas), control of the entry and exit of environmental goods, and processes through the Single Window.
Source: presidencia.gov.do
