Environment Ministry makes registration of HFC imports compulsory

The Ministry of Environment this week called for applications for the compulsory registration of businesses and individuals who wish to import hydrofluorocarbons (HFC) based imports for 2024.

Completed applications along with supporting documents are to be submitted to the ministry before May 7.

“Business entities/ individuals are not eligible to import HFCS for any purpose without registration,” the notice cautioned.

The announcement comes after the Cabinet last month approved a plan to gradually reduce HFC imports, through an annual import quota system.

HFCS are a group of synthetic gasses primarily used for cooling and refrigeration with a high global warming potential.

As Sri Lanka is a signatory of the ‘Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer’, it has a legal obligation towards global environmental protection.

Moreover, Sri Lanka in 2018 ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which aims at phasing down the production and consumption of HFCS globally by 80 – 85 percent by 2047.

Therefore Sri Lanka is further legally bound to restrict the import, export, trade and consumption of HFC, on a phased basis.

In line with the restriction, the Montreal protocol has assigned Sri Lanka with a baseline for the HFC quota for 2024, amounting to the average total quantity of Hfc-based refrigerants imported to Sri Lanka between 2020 and 2022.

According to the Environment Ministry, importers will be allowed to import refrigerants of the HFC series beyond 2024 in proportion to the quantity of refrigerants belonging to the HFC series imported in the years 2020, 2021 and 2022, and accordingly those HFC importers will only be entitled to a quota for HFC imports”.