The National Ozone Unit (NOU) is a unit established at the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency (EEAA). NOU acts as the secretariat of the National Ozone Committee, which is a committee established (Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Decree No. 80 of 8th April 2013) with the mandate of assisting EEAA in the implementation of Egypt’s obligations, by selecting the mechanism to regulate the import and export of quantities of ozone-depleting controlled substances to ensure verification of compliance of Egypt with the provisions of the Montreal Protocol for the Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.

In accordance with the Kigali Amendment adopted by the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on 15 October 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, all Parties are obliged to gradually phase down HFCs by more than 80 per cent over the next 30 years and replace them with more environmentally-friendly alternatives.

One of the many responsibilities of the NOU is to keep an up-to-date registry and database to control and keep records of ozone-depleting substances. The NOU has certain experience in sense of issuing import licenses for the import of the ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and equipment containing ODS. The current procedure linked with the license issuing is described in the following steps.