Walton partners with United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to manufacture energy-efficient modern refrigerators and air conditioner for Bangladesh market. The project is jointly implemented by United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and Walton under the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change.
Earlier, Government of Bangladesh and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) signed an agreement on 05 May this year at the Economic Relations Division to implement a US$ 3.3 million grant approved by the Montreal Protocol Multilateral Fund for making environment friendly and energy efficient refrigerators at Walton Hi Tech Industries Ltd. Under this initiative, UNDP, with assistance from the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change, provides 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.
Helen Picot, head of Strengthening for Efficiency and Access to Cooling of Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program of UNDP recently visited Walton plant at Chandra in Gazipur to see the progress of the HFC Phase Out project and appreciated the initiative by Walton, especially mentioning the testing lab and quality control facilities Walton established.
Under the one-year project, the environment-friendly HC-600a (Isobutane) refrigerant is being used in Walton factory and service centers instead of high global warming HFC-134a refrigerant. The Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program associates the project.
Ashraful Ambia, National Consultant on UNDP Chemical and Montreal Protocol, claimed that this is the first project in the world to phase out HFC from cooling appliances. The government of Bangladesh jointly with Walton is implementing the project.
Noteworthy, Bangladesh signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987 to prevent depleting ozone layer in order to prevent global warming. And in 2016, the decision was taken to stop the use of Hydro Fluoro Carbon (HFC) gas responsible for global warming in refrigerators and AC compressors in developing countries through an amendment in Kigali, the capital city of Rwanda. As a result, at the end of this century, it is possible to prevent global warming at least 0.5 degrees Celsius.
The implementation of Walton’s project will help reducing the use of about 230 metric tons of HFC gas which is equivalent of 329,801-ton carbon dioxide gas emission. The project authorities believe this initiative will be a milestone in preventing global warming across the world.
