PARIS—The international community has moved one step closer to a deal on eliminating hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a series of super potent greenhouse gases, at the Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol in Paris this week.
“A broad group of countries including China, India, South Africa, and Brazil voiced support for starting to address HFCs under the Montreal Protocol this week,” said Mark W. Roberts, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) International Policy Advisor. “The exciting opportunity of using the Montreal Protocol to phase down over a 100 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2050 gives hope for multilateral actions to combat climate change.”
New developments include serious interest in a new plan by the European Union, which also helped to inject renewed vigor into the HFC talks, which builds on proposals by the North American states and Micronesia that have been tabled since 2009. An additional sign of progress this week was a softened stance on HFCs expressed by the Indian Environment and Climate Minister Prakash Javadekar in his statement yesterday. For the last six years India has opposed discussions on amending the Montreal Protocol to address HFCs.
“The statement by the Indian Environment Minister shows a willingness to move forward and discuss substantive issues related to the management of HFCs,” said Avipsa Mahapatra, International Climate Policy Analyst at EIA. “However, the concerns raised by India and echoed by many other developing countries including technology transfer, energy efficiency, and financing will have to be addressed to maintain this momentum.”
HFCs, which have global warming potentials hundreds to thousands of times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide, have been commercialized as replacements to ozone depleting substances, which were phased out under the Montreal Protocol.
These meetings mark the 26th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol (MOP26) and the tenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Vienna Convention (COP10), which were held this week in Paris, France.
In advance of this meeting, EIA released a briefing to provide further explanation.
Update, 03:57 EST
BREAKING—The replenishment for the next triennium of the Multilateral Fund, which determines available money for the activities of the Montreal Protocol, was decided today, and has been fixed at $507.5 million USD. This amount is higher than the last meeting’s approved $415 million plan. Both developed and developing countries were pleased pleased with the decision. While the terms have been approved, formal language is just being finalized.
As this agreement is finalized, the Montreal Protocol has sent a clear message to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Conference of the Parties, set to begin in Lima next month, that the international community is ready to take action on mitigation of greenhouse gases. It should come as a welcome message to the UNFCCC that nations of the world can come together to work on mitigation of greenhouse gases.
Contact:
Maggie Dewane, Press Officer, mdewane@eia-global.org, +1(202) 483-6621