New Delhi : The Minister of State for Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ashwini Kumar Choubey today said that India has successfully phased-out production and consumption of several major Ozone Depleting Substances (ODS) and met all the obligations of the Montreal Protocol so far, by accessing technical and financial assistance from the financial mechanism of the Montreal Protocol.
The Minister was chairing an event organized to observe the 27th Global Ozone Day in New Delhi today.
Chowbey said, one of the reasons to India’s success in phasing out of the Ozone Depleting Substances is the involvement of key stakeholders both at the planning as well as implementation levels. He said, Industries, research institutions, line Ministries, consumers etc. have been contributing significantly to the Ozone Depleting Substances phase out programme of the Montreal Protocol in India.
Referring to the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, which was recently ratified by the Government of India, the Minister said, issues relating to minimizing industrial obsolescence and adverse economic impacts should appropriately be addressed while developing a Hydrofluorocarbon phase down strategy for implementing it.
World Ozone Day is celebrated on 16th September each year to commemorate the signing of the Montreal Protocol, an international environmental treaty for phasing out of production and consumption of Ozone Depleting Substances, that came into force on this day in 1987. The Day is celebrated every year to spread awareness among people about the depletion of Ozone Layer and the measures taken/ to be taken to preserve it. The Ozone Cell, Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC), Government of India has been celebrating the World Ozone Day since 1995 at the National and State levels.
The theme World Ozone Day 2021 is “Montreal Protocol – Keeping us, our food and vaccines cool”.
MoS Shri Choubey released the Action Plan for implementing recommendations of the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP) for the thematic Area Space Cooling in Buildings. The Action Plan has been developed after mapping of the recommendations given in the ICAP and after detailed discussions with various stakeholders including line departments and Ministries.
The India cooling action plan (ICAP), the first of its kind in the world to be developed by the MoEF&CC, addresses cooling requirement across sectors and lists out actions which can help reduce the cooling demand through synergies in actions for securing both environmental and socio-economic benefits. The ICAP aims to reduce both direct and indirect emissions.
The Minister also released a Study Report on Cold Chain sector in India for Promoting non-ozone depleting substances and Low- global warming potential Refrigerants and another Study Report on Public Procurement Policies for Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Equipment using non-Ozone Depleting Substances based refrigerants.
He also released the Winning Entries of Poster and Slogan Competitions held on the occasion across various schools in India. More than 3900 Students participated in the competition.
Secretary of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change R P Gupta, Atul Bagai, Head of UNEP in India, Shoko Nada Resident Representative of UNDP in India and various representatives of Industries, Industrial Organisations, various stakeholders and over 3000 School Children participated in the event held virtually.
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