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More than 100 nations near deal to curb destructive air conditioning gases Climate change: global deal reached to limit use of hydrofluorocarbons
(35 minutes later)
More than 100 countries were poised on Friday to strike an ambitious global deal to phase out the powerful greenhouse gases widely used in refrigerators, air conditioning and inhalers. A worldwide deal has been reached to limit the use of greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide in a major effort to fight climate change.
“We are very close. If we make this agreement it will be one the most important global meetings this year,” said Erik Solheim, head of the UN Environment Programme. The talks on hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, have been called the first test of global will since the historic Paris Agreement to cut carbon emissions was reached last year. HFCs are described as the world’s fastest-growing climate pollutant and are used in air conditioners and refrigerators.
Worldwide use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), has soared in the past 10 years as rapidly growing countries like China and India have widely adopted air conditioning in homes, offices and cars. The agreement announced Saturday morning, after all-night negotiations, caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process beginning in 2019 with action by developed countries including the US, the world’s second worst polluter. More than 100 developing countries, including China, the world’s top carbon emitter, will start taking action in 2024.
But HFC gases are thousands of times more destructive to the climate than carbon dioxide, and scientists say the their growing use threatens to undermine the Paris accord by 195 countries, which agreed last year to reduce climate emissions. A small group of countries including India, Pakistan and some Gulf states pushed for and secured a later start in 2028, saying their economies need more time to grow. That is three years earlier than India, the world’s third worst polluter, had first proposed.
The meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, included the United States, the European Union and most African states, many of which argued for HFC use to peak within five years. Environmental groups had hoped the deal could reduce global warming by a half-degree Celsius by the end of this century. This agreement gets about 90% of the way there, said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.
As negotiations to amend the Montreal Protocol to include HFCs heated up, countries have traded proposals and counter proposals. India agreed to phase out all HFCs, a move which the government estimated could prevent the equivalent of nearly 500,000 tonnes of CO2 from entering the atmosphere over 15 years. This is the largest temperature reduction ever achieved by a single agreement.
But some developing countries, including India and Pakistan, have said that their fast-growing industries will not have time to adapt and have sought a later start to the agreement, with the first reductions not taking place until 2031. The US and European Union have argued for an earlier peak date, around 2020 to 2022, and are hopeful that India will agree to a more ambitious phase-out. Zaelke’s group said this is the “largest temperature reduction ever achieved by a single agreement”. Speaking as he left the talks late on Friday evening, US secretary of state John Kerry described the deal as a “a monumental step forward”.
John Kerry, the US secretary of state, joined the negotiations on Thursday, meeting Chinese and Indian officials to secure a deal. Kerry said nations could set different phase-out deadlines in order to push the agreement forward. The new agreement is “equal to stopping the entire world’s fossil-fuel CO2 emissions for more than two years,” David Doniger, climate and clean air program director with the Natural Resources Defense Council, said in a statement.
“Agreeing a deal to phase down the use of HFCs is the single most important step we can take to limit the warming of the planet,” he said. Experts said they hope market forces will help speed up the limits agreed to in the deal.
“We all know that the window of time that we have to prevent the worst climate impacts from happening is in fact narrowing, and it is closing fast.” “Compromises had to be made, but 85% of developing countries have committed to the early schedule starting 2024, which is a very significant achievement,” Clare Perry, of the Environmental Investigation Agency, said.
Mattlan Zackhras, ambassador for the Marshall Islands, a low-lying nation at severe risk from climate change, said: “This is the biggest step we have taken this year towards making the goals of the Paris agreement a reality, and ensuring we do what is necessary to save my country. HFCs were introduced in the 1980s as a substitute for ozone-depleting gases. But their danger has grown as air conditioner and refrigerator sales have soared in emerging economies such as China and India. HFCs are also found in inhalers and insulating foams.
“We all know we must go further, and we will go further – the built in review system and promises of financial support for even earlier action will ensure that we do. It will be a proud call back home to my family tonight.” Major economies have debated how fast to phase out HFCs. The US, whose delegation was led by secretary of state John Kerry, and western countries want quick action. Nations such as India want to give their industries more time to adjust.
Developed countries have offered $80m to help developing countries switch away from HFCs in return for speedier action. Small island states and many African countries had pushed for quick action, saying they face the biggest threat from climate change.
Gaby Drinkwater, Christian Aid senior policy advisor in Kigali, said: “Human ingenuity is driving developments in low carbon technology and sustainable refrigerants. Countries have nothing to fear from agreeing ambitious dates for an early phase-down of HFCs.” “It may not be entirely what the islands wanted, but it is a good deal,” the minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands, Mattlan Zackhras, said. “We all know we must go further, and we will go further.”
Use of HFCs rocketed in the 1990s after earlier coolants, known as CFCs, were discontinued when scientists found they were destroying the ozone layer, the thin layer of atmosphere that protects the earth from harmful solar rays. But although scientists warned that replacement HFCs were powerful climate-changing gases, governments did not ban them. HFCs are less plentiful than carbon dioxide, but Kerry said last month that they currently emit as much pollution as 300 coal-fired power plants each year. That amount will rise significantly over the coming decades as air conditioning units and refrigerators reach hundreds of millions of new people.
HFCs are considered a uniquely dangerous threat to the climate. According to the Berkeley National Laboratory, around 1.6bn new air conditioning units are expected to turn on by 2050, with the potential of raising global temperatures significantly. Air conditioning is largest cause of HFC growth, but the gases are also used as fire suppressants and in data centre cooling systems. HFCs do not harm the ozone layer like chlorofluorocarbons and similar gases that were eliminated under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The entire world ratified that agreement, helping to repair holes in the ozone that helps shield the planet from the harmful rays of the sun. The aim of this meeting was to attach an amendment to that treaty dealing specifically with HFCs.