Manama: Nov. 29 — (BNA) The Supreme Council for the Environment organized yesterday a nationwide workshop on the plan for elimination of hydro-chlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) substances and the quota system in the Kingdom of Bahrain in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the United Nations Environment Program for West Asia (UNEP).

The workshop was inaugurated by the general director of the Supreme Council for the Environment Dr. Adel Khalifa Al-Zayani in the presence of a number of senior officials from the UNDP and the UNEP.

As per the Montreal Protocol, HCFC substances are ozone depleting substances whose manufacturing and consuming should be phased out over the next twenty years.
The workshop discussed the removal of HCFCs and the quota system in the Kingdom of Bahrain, as part of the Kingdom of Bahrain’s obligations towards the Montreal Protocol namely curbing, restricting the importing of HCFCs or rather R-22 substance which used in cooling and air-conditioning systems in the Kingdom.

The parties of Montreal Protocol agreed to expedite the timetable in order to gradually eliminate HCFCs in developing countries and also agreed to curb the use of these substances and to freeze the level of HCFCs’ consumption at the level of the year 2009. (IY)