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The German Environment Ministry (BMU) is supporting a project that intends to convert a local Chinese air conditioning manufacturer from using harmful HCFC to apply environmental friendly hydrocarbons as a refrigerant, thereby establishing a best-practice model.

The project conducted by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) within its PROKLIMA programme is meant to directly reduce the climate damaging and ozone-depleting emission of HCFC in China. Moreover, the project aims to demonstrate the potential of energy savings and therefore also cost efficiency of approximately 20% by using hydrocarbon technologies.

From Halogenated Refrigerants to Hydrocarbons

The two-year project, started successfully in December 2008, has an overall project funding of 2 million euro. Partners in China are the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the Chinese Household Electrical Appliances Association to finance the project on the one hand, and to incorporate the results and experiences into a national HCFC phase-out plan on the other. Main goal is to convince other Asian manufacturers to also convert their production in favour of the natural refrigerant.

Showcase Production of Environmentally Sound Air-Conditioning Systems

To further support China’s efforts to achieve compliance with the Montreal Protocol, the project covers the whole implementation process. The partners will therefore cooperate with technical institutions to provide safety and maintenance training to production and servicing staff, as well as workshops and educational material together with other companies.

Background - GTZ & Proklima

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) is a government-owned corporation for international cooperation with worldwide operations. GTZ’s aim is to shape the political, economic, ecological and social development worldwide through the support of complex development and reform processes, as well as sustainable development. The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is its main financing organisation. Its partner organisations include the European Commission, the United Nations and the World Bank. The organisation has more than 10,000 employees in around 130 countries.

PROKLIMA is one of five GTZ programmes helping partner countries to fulfil the requirements of international conventions. With more than 110 projects and a financial volume of over €24 million, PROKLIMA is the most important bilateral partner of the Montreal Protocol’s Multilateral Fund.