| |
|
 |
Minister
Gunewardana and the members of the Ozone Secretariat lit a
traditional oil lamp before opening MOP-13. |
|
|
|
MOP-13
opened with a cultural ceremony including the performance
of a MOP-13 theme song by Sri Lankan school children
and a traditional greeting ceremony performed by the
Sri Lankan Army Band [right and below].
|
 |
|
 |
|
| |
|
| Dinesh
Gunewardana, Minister of Transport and Environment, Sri Lanka,
welcomed MOP-13 delegates. He said Sri Lanka plans to ratify
the Beijing Amendment within the year and highlighted domestic
measures to reduce ODS consumption, including the conversion
of CFC-consuming refrigerator factories, a CFC recovery programme,
research on alternatives to methyl bromide in tea production
and regulatory measures on ODS imports. He noted that Sri
Lanka aims to phase out CFCs by 2005, five years ahead of
the scheduled 2010 phase-out date. |
 |
 Listen
to Gunewardana's opening statement |
 |
|
|
 |
From
left to right: Minister Gunewardana, Milton Catelin (Australia)
and P.V. Jayakrishnan (India), Co-Chairs of the Prepatory
Segment of MOP-13. |
|
|
| Michael
Graber, Deputy Executive Secretary and Officer-in-Charge,
Ozone Secretariat, welcomed participants on behalf of UNEP
Executive Director Klaus Töpfer. Highlighting the "outstanding"
rate of reporting by Parties on their ODS production and consumption
data, Graber pointed to the contribution of national ozone
units, the Multilateral Fund and implementing agencies in
achieving this result. He noted that MOP-14 would take place
in Nairobi, from 25-29 November 2002. He urged delegates to
remain focused on combating ozone depletion as the task is
far from accomplished. |
 |
|
|
| View
of the hall during the opening ceremony, with members of the
Buddhist clergy sitting in the front row |
 |
|
|
Theodore
Kapiga, Multilateral Fund Treasurer [on the left],
overviewed the interim review of the implementation of the
fixed-exchange-rate mechanism (UNEP/OzL.Pro.13/6). He said
that for Parties using the fixed-exchange-rate mechanism
using in 2000 and 2001, a loss of US$11.46 million or 14.5%
of pledges was incurred. He noted a 3.9% loss of total pledges
for 2000 and 2001 due to the fixed-exchange-rate mechanism.
Based on the current trends, he projected a total loss of
US$34.5 million in the triennium due to exchange rate fluctuations.
Andrew
Reed, Multilateral Fund Secretariat [on the right],
said the fixed-exchange-rate mechanism introduces uncertainty
in the business planning and project approval process. He
estimated that the projected shortfall for the triennium
could forfeit the phase out of 6,272 ODP tonnes.
|
|
|
| Left
to right: Co-Chairs Catelin and Jayakrishnan, and
Deputy Executive Secretary Graber. |
 |
|
