Decision 59/4

Following the discussion, the Executive Committee decided:

1. To note:
   1. With appreciation, the status reports on projects with implementation delays submitted to the Secretariat by the Governments of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and Sweden and the four implementing agencies addressed in document UNEP/OzL.Pro/ExCom/59/6;
   2. The completion of four of the 35 projects categorized as having implementation delays;
   3. That the Secretariat and the implementing agencies would take established actions according to the Secretariat’s assessments (progress or some progress) and report to and notify governments and bilateral and implementing agencies as required;
   4. That UNEP planned to complete its project on the development of guidelines to promote safety in aerosol conversion (GLO/ARS/39/TAS/246) by the end of 2009 as only two translations of the completed document still had to be finalized;
2. To request:
   1. Additional status reports on the projects listed in Annex III to the present report;
   2. The Chair of the Executive Committee to write to the Minister of the Environment of Barbados requesting gazetting of the licensing system be expedited to enable implementation of ongoing projects for implementation of the refrigerant management plan (RMP), implemented by UNDP and UNEP (BAR/REF/43/TAS/10, 11 and 12), in the light of the impending 1 January 2010 deadline for phase-out of most ODS;
   3. The Governments of Israel and Portugal to provide their progress reports to the 60^th Meeting of the Executive Committee;
   4. The Secretariat to provide information to the 62^nd Meeting on use of web-based country programme implementation data and country profile systems to enable a review of their continued utility;
   5. That information on country profiles should only be on the Secretariat’s intranet and that public access should be limited to Executive Committee Members;
3. To encourage:
   1. Implementing agencies and the Governments of Botswana and Somalia to submit requests for HCFC phase-out management plan preparation as soon as possible to facilitate their efforts to meet the 2013 freeze and 2015 reductions in HCFC consumption;
   2. The Government of Ethiopia to finalize ODS regulations in order to complete implementation of the country’s RMP, implemented by France (ETH/REF/44/TAS/14);
   3. The Government of Ethiopia to implement a ban on the import of virgin halon to ensure compliance with the 1 January 2010 ban on the import and export of halons to Article 5 countries in the light of the impending completion of the halon bank for Eastern and Southern African countries (including Ethiopia), implemented by Germany (AFR/HAL/35/TAS/29);
   4. Expedited completion of the licensing system in Eritrea in order to initiate the terminal phase-out management plan, implemented by UNIDO (ERI/PHA/54/INV/05);
4. To note:
   1. That the recovery and recycling project in Morocco (MOR/REF/23/TAS/17), implemented by France, had been reassessed, and the planned completion date was 30 April 2010;
   2. The intention of the Government of Sri Lanka to use the balance of funds for its incentive programme for milk chilling tank retrofits (SRL/PHA/43/TAS/26), implemented by Japan, and to complete the project by 31 December 2010;
   3. That UNIDO planned to submit a business plan to the 60^th Meeting to allow implementation of the halon banking project in the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya (LIB/HAL/47/TAS/26);
5. That project preparation funds approved at the 55^th Meeting for the preparation of HCFC production phase-out projects in China implemented by the World Bank (CPR/PHA/55/PRP/467), could be used to assist China in submitting preliminary data on the production sector in order to request the Secretariat to undertake a technical audit; and
6. To urge Bosnia and Herzegovina to expedite a value-added tax exemption to facilitate bidding for and the delivery of equipment for the halon banking project implemented by UNIDO (BHE/HAL/42/TAS/18), in the light of the impending 1 January 2010 phase-out of halons.