July 12, 2022
Intervention by Mr. Jeem Lippwe, Head of Delegation of the Federated States of Micronesia on Agenda Item 6 (b): Dumping of new and old inefficient refrigeration and air conditioning appliances (proposal by the African Group)
Thank you Mr. Co-chair,
I will be brief in recognition of the time.
I wish to express the concern of Micronesia relating to the experience of the African countries which they have raised regarding the inefficient equipment often containing high GWP HFC’s that are coming into their countries. While the Africa region has raised this, Micronesia is also concerned that it is not a problem unique to their region and could now or later affect many more of us. The TEAP report and comments by the task force yesterday show that the strengthening of standards in some exporting countries results in a reduction of inefficient equipment in those countries, but at least in the example shown, the inefficient equipment simply gets exported to countries that have lesser standards – or perhaps have less capacity to enforce import policies at the borders. This is highly worrisome and it is certainly an unwanted consequence that we should be able to find solutions to in this forum. Placing the burden on A5 countries to seal their borders to inefficient or obsolete equipment is not a practical solution – nor is it a fair solution. Moreover, the potential compliance issue for A5 parties suggests we should seek solutions here.
As we heard yesterday, there should be a shared responsibility of exporting countries and importing countries to avoid the continuation and potential expansion of a situation that is environmentally harmful, has negative long-term energy impacts for A5 countries, and seems fundamentally unfair. It is the opinion of the Micronesian delegation that the Montreal Protocol is exemplary in its equitable approaches to solving hard problems. We trust this will be possible here too.
Thank you.