Promoting Ozone and Climate friendly refrigerants and air conditioning (R/AC) technologies through Sustainable Public Procurement

Hosted by the United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics, this webinar is co-organized with UNEP Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific.

The objectives of the webinar are to:

• Present the concept of sustainable public procurement (SPP);
• report on the outcomes of Seoul procurement workshop held in March 2015;
• share the conclusions of Mongolia case study showing how SPP can be translated into reality for certain products;
• share the U.S. EPA initiatives to reduce HFC emissions including through national pro- curement, and
• discuss possibilities of supporting countries with a standards and eco-labelling scheme in place to introduce information about refrigerants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s activities in terms of reduction of HFC emissions and specific U.S. domestic actions will be outlined, including: evaluation of alternatives to high-GWP under the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Significant New Alternatives Poli- cy (SNAP) program; proposed amendment to government purchasing regulation, the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), to encourage purchase of low-GWP options; technology testing and demonstration programs for advanced building systems, including those using alternative RAC equipment, conducted by various agencies; as well as government-industry partnerships to reduce emissions and promote responsible disposal.