Seychelles seems to be news shy. The island nation hardly indulges in information-making occasions, which is why News in Africa Online is happy to report this. The country is focusing on ozone-layer-friendly technological appliances as it joins the second phase of the Green Cooling Africa Initiative.
Through the initiative, Seychelles will be able to replace appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioning units containing hydrochlorofluorocarbon, HCFCs, and chlorofluorocarbons, CFCs, with those using natural gases.
The Principal Secretary for Energy and Climate Change, Wills Agricole, said that applications for refrigeration and air conditioning are increasing as they are essential in areas such as the preservation of food and medicine. “As a result, greenhouse gas emissions also rise, because these applications consume electricity and most of these applications use fluorinated gases as refrigerants in their functioning,” said Mr. Agricole.
He declared that “as these gases leak during operation, servicing or when an appliance is dismantled or disposed of, cause substantial emissions of greenhouse gases.”
The project is being financed by the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB). It is being implemented by the German development agency GIZ in collaboration with the Seychelles Ozone Unit in the Ministry of Environment, Energy and Climate Change.
The project manager of GIZ, Nika Greger, said that although Seychelles is a low consuming country, the island nation must join other countries in helping phase out these destructing gases. “The project will also be collecting data appliances used by consumers in Seychelles. The result will be presented in the form of a roadmap that can serve as a strategy for the market and draft energy-friendly policies,” said Greger.
Seychelles, a group of 115 islands in the western Indian Ocean, became the 5th country in Africa to be part of the Green Cooling Africa Initiative after Ghana, Namibia, Kenya and neighbouring island Mauritius.
