HAVANA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Cuba is preparing to reduce its use of ozone-depleting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), official sources said on Wednesday.

Nelson Espinosa, director of the Cuban Ozone Technical Office, said Havana was hosting three international workshops on refrigerant gases like HFCs and environmentally-friendly alternative technologies.

Cuba aims to eliminate HFCs and other global warming gases from its refrigeration and air-conditioning industries, in keeping with the 2016 Kigali Amendment, a global pledge to gradually phase down HFCs.

The Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the ozone layer was adopted by the 197 signatories of the protocol in 2016, and took effect on Jan. 1, 2019.

In 2017, Cuba received the Ozone Award, the Montreal Protocol's top recognition for controlling and eliminating the production and consumption of substances damaging the ozone layer, which protects the planet from the sun's harmful ultraviolet radiation.