STRATEGY PAPER FOR LOW-HALON-CONSUMING COUNTRIES; GUIDELINES FOR HALON BANKING
The Executive Committee decided:
(a) to approve on an interim basis the guidelines as follows:
(i) countries with installed capacities exceeding 250 MT of Halon 1301 and 1,000 MT of Halon 1211 should be classified as countries with a high-level of installed capacity and should qualify for reclamation facilities for Halon 1301 and Halon‑1211, respectively;
(ii) countries with a medium level of installed capacity (250 MT of Halon 1301 and 1,000 MT of Halon 1211) should be classified for servicing requirements with Halon 1211 and Halon 1301 recycling and recovery machines. The number will depend on national conditions, but Halon 1301 and Halon 1211 recycling and recovery machines depend on the size of country and the location of main/critical users;
(iii) countries with a low level of installed capacity should qualify for a one time funding of US $25,000 which can be used for the acquisition of recycling equipment or as an incentive to recover halons from existing systems, or the establishment of exchange programmes to be decided by the country;
(iv) the brokerage function of identifying sources of supply for those with an identified need should be handled by a steering committee consisting of authorities, the fire protection industry, and main users;
(v) regulations facilitating production and import bans should be established within six months after the reclamation centre is set up; and
(vi) halon banking operations could be established for eligible countries. The costs for providing capital equipment and management range from US $250,000 to US $500,000. Funds for Halon 1211/Halon 1301 reclamation centres could, if appropriate, be provided on a concessional basis containing a 25 per cent grant component;
(b) to consider for intersessional approval, bilateral cooperation projects that had been previously submitted, for demonstration purposes on the basis of a full grant component;
(c) to consider at its next Meeting, the approval of two demonstration projects per region for countries with a low level of installed capacity, as defined in the interim guidelines, at a proposed level of US $70,000 per country; and
(d) that, in order to facilitate a final decision by the Executive Committee on halon-banking guidelines, the Secretariat and the implementing agencies should closely monitor these projects as a basis for assessing the interim guidelines in terms of their commercial viability and their financial impact of on the Fund, and for assessing the possibility of establishing a regional halon-banking programme, including the possibility of a concessional loan component.