Noting with appreciation the work done by the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel and its Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee,

Noting that Parties submitting requests for methyl bromide have supported their requests with management strategies as requested under decision Ex.I/4,

1. To permit, for the agreed critical-use categories for 2008 set forth in table A of the annex to the present decision for each Party, subject to the conditions set forth in the present decision and decision Ex.I/4 to the extent that those conditions are applicable, the levels of production and consumption for 2008 set forth in table B of the annex to the present decision which are necessary to satisfy critical uses, in addition to the amounts permitted in decision XVIII/13;
2. To permit, for the agreed critical-use categories for 2009 set forth in table C of the annex to the present decision for each Party, subject to the conditions set forth in the present decision and in decision Ex.I/4 to the extent that those conditions are applicable, the levels of production and consumption for 2009 set forth in table D of the annex to the present decision which are necessary to satisfy critical uses, with the understanding that additional levels of production and consumption and categories of uses may be approved by the Meeting of the Parties in accordance with decision IX/6;
3. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to ensure that recent findings with regard to the adoption rate of alternatives are annually updated and reported to the Parties in its first report of each year and inform the work of the Panel;
4. That when assessing supplemental requests for critical use exemptions for 2009 for a specific nomination, the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel should take into account the most current information, including any information on domestic implementation of related 2008 and 2009 critical uses, in accordance with paragraph 2 of decision IX/6;
5. That a Party with a critical use exemption level in excess of permitted levels of production and consumption for critical uses is to make up any such differences between those levels by using quantities of methyl bromide from stocks that the Party has recognized to be available;
6. That Parties shall endeavour to license, permit, authorize or allocate quantities of critical-use methyl bromide as listed in tables A and C of the annex to the present decision;
7. That each Party which has an agreed critical use renews its commitment to ensure that the criteria in paragraph 1 of decision IX/6 are applied when licensing, permitting or authorizing critical use of methyl bromide and, in particular, the criterion laid down in paragraph 1 (b) (ii) of decision IX/6. Each Party is requested to report on the implementation of the present paragraph to the Ozone Secretariat by 1 February for the years to which this decision applies;
8. To request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to continue publishing annually in its progress report prior to each meeting of the Open‑ended Working Group the stocks of methyl bromide held by each nominating Party as reported in that Party’s accounting framework report;
9. To recognize the continued contribution of the Methyl Bromide Technical Options Committee’s expertise and to agree that, in accordance with section 4.1 of the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel’s terms of reference, the Committee should continue to develop its recommendations in a consensus process that includes full discussion among all available members of the Committee;
10. To note the importance of transparency in the critical‑use exemption process and to request the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel to provide to the Open-ended Working Group at its next meeting a written explanation of its methodology for using its meta-analysis in its work and to disclose to the Parties in a written explanation any significant changes or deviations it intends to make to that methodology before it undertakes any such change or deviation;
11. That Parties licensing, permitting or authorizing methyl bromide for critical uses shall request the use of emission minimization techniques such as virtually impermeable films, barrier film technologies, deep shank injection and/or other techniques that promote environmental protection, whenever technically and economically feasible;
12. That each Party should continue to ensure that its national management strategy for the phase-out of critical uses of methyl bromide addresses the aims specified in paragraph 3 of decision Ex.I/4;

Annex to decision XIX/9

Critical-use exemptions for 2008 and 2009

Table A.  2008 agreed critical-use categories (metric tonnes)

*             This amount was first approved in decision XVIII/13, conditional on the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel’s 2007 progress report.

Table B: 2008 permitted levels of production and consumption (metric tonnes)

*             The production and consumption of the European Community shall not exceed 245.146 metric tonnes for the purposes of the agreed critical uses.

**           This amount was first approved in decision XVIII/13, conditional on the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel’s 2007 progress report.

Table C: 2009 agreed critical-use categories (metric tonnes)

Table D: 2009 permitted levels of production and consumption (metric tonnes)

*             Minus available stocks