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Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement on Sunday to implement a $3.3 million grant, approved by the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund, for making environment-friendly and energy-efficient refrigerator at Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd.
Monowar Ahmed, Secretary, Economic Relations Division, and Kyoko Yokosuka, Deputy Resident Representative, UNDP Bangladesh, signed the project agreement at the NEC conference on behalf of their respective organisations.
It is expected that emission of around 329,801 tonnes of CO2 equivalent GHG will be reduced and 42 million kwh electricity will be saved through implementation of the project.
Under this initiative, UNDP, with assistance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, will provide technical support and necessary equipment to Walton Hi-Tech Industries Ltd to produce and promote environment-friendly and energy-efficient refrigerators.
As a partner of this project, Walton is also contributing the same amount of resources to implement it.
High global warming refrigerant, HFC-134a will be replaced by environment-friendly and energy-efficiency HC-600a (isobutane) refrigerant during refrigerator production.
Environment-friendly equipment and training will be provided to Walton for changing production facilities of HFC-134a based compressor to HC-600a for the same industry.
Monowar Ahmed said this is a very significant initiative under public-private partnership, supported by the UN, to promote environment-friendly and energy-efficient technology. "We can bring additional resources from other development partners for promoting green growth while bringing climate benefits," he said.
Kyoko Yokosuka said Montreal Protocol is considered as one of the most successful global treaties to address global climate challenge. "I think Bangladesh has done tremendously well under the leadership of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change. As a result, the country has phased out some of the chemicals harmful for Ozon layer."
She has also highlighted the partnership between UNDP and the ministry and said, "The partnership between UNDP and MOEFCC now joined by ERD will intensify further in the implementation of both Montreal Protocol and Paris Climate Agreement".
SM Ashraful Alam, Managing Director of Walton, said their operation is fully compliant with the national and international standards set for environmental, energy and occupational health and safety of workers, reports UNB.