Alejandro Ramiréz is Senior Programme Management Officer at the Secretariat of the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol, which plays a key role in coordinating financial and technical support to developing countries such as Brazil (Article 5) for the phase-out of substances that deplete the Ozone Layer and impact Climate Change. In this Cool Talk, he talks about his first official visit to Brazil and what has changed in the last 15 years.
Please tell us about your work at the Multilateral Fund. And what does your first official visit to Brazil represent (Mission from February 23 to 26)?
The secretariat of the Multilateral Fund is responsible for establishing policies for the financing of projects for the reduction of controlled substances and the review of projects. For our work, this visit is very important because we have the opportunity to see first-hand what is happening in the countries and to be able to understand what challenges the refrigeration and air conditioning sectors, governments, associations and training institutes are facing to implement the projects to phase-out HCFCs and reduce HFCs and to reduce energy use at the same time.
Another important point is to verify the adoption of technologies with low global warming potential (GWP), which implies actions, for example, in the servicing sector, training and certification of technicians.
For us, having this opportunity is very valuable because it can help us not only to facilitate the implementation of projects, but also to think about future financing policies, how to adapt them and how to make sure that they really cover the challenges that countries have.
We have been visiting other countries as well and we can compare and see what the common problems are that countries have and be able to prioritize these challenges.
You were in Brazil 15 years ago and are returning now. Looking at the Brazilian journey from the phase-out of CFCs to the current challenges with HCFCs and HFCs, how do you assess the evolution of the refrigeration and air conditioning (RAC) sector in the country?
Well, after 15 years it is a pleasure to see the progress that has been achieved. This week I had the opportunity to listen to the strategy that the country is designing for the KIP (Kigali Implementation Plan, Brazilian Program for the Reduction of Consumption of HFCs – HFCs Program) and to know that HCFCs have already been phased out in new equipment in the residential and commercial refrigeration sectors, and by the end of Stage III of the HPMP (Hydrofluorocarbons Phase Out Management Plan) the phase out will be complete. This is incredible progress.
Also in the residential air conditioning sector, I was able to observe that companies are already starting to make a transition to intermediate substances, which is also progress, because they will reduce greenhouse gas emissions significantly, since the global warming potential of the substance they are using as an intermediate (R-32) is much lower.
So, this is a step for the long term, and I think that in KIP it is necessary to think long term, because the activities that must be done involve transforming the sector and the technology. There are also many changes taking place at the digital level and in the use of new tools that can help the sector.
The amount of work required to implement these changes is considerable, but the country has the capacity to do so. During this mission, I had the opportunity to visit some companies and see the innovation they are making.
It was also positive to be able to see projects that were carried out with HPMP and to see the companies that converted. They not only made the conversion with the funds provided by the Multilateral Fund but continued to make additional innovations with their own resources and went much further than the project itself.
The same happened with the training centers (the HPMP partner schools). We have seen, for example, that a pilot project is starting for the certification of technicians, and these are points that are long-term, because once the certification is established, it can already be applied in the long term.
