This weekend, more than 190 countries adopted an amendment to the 1989 Montreal Protocol in Kigali, Rwanda, to reduce global levels of climate-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 80 to 85 percent by 2047.
CCAP applauds the international communities efforts to address HFCs—a powerful greenhouse gas (GHG)— through this landmark agreement. This is the second major international agreement in less than a year to combat climate change, showing us that countries are moving forward with speed and ambition to slow the onset of dangerous man-made climate warming.
The global community is recognizing that the refrigeration sector is important for climate mitigation. Unabated, emissions from the refrigeration, air conditioning and foam blowing sectors are expected to triple by 2050. Based on current projections, the Kigali Agreement will be critical to move the world closer to achieving the Paris Agreement’s goals of limiting global temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, with an aim to reach 1.5 °C. Phasing out HFCs by 2050 is expected to help lower warming by 0.5 degrees.
Developing countries are already making progress in reducing HFC use and curbing emissions from the refrigeration and cooling sectors. Just last year at COP21, the NAMA Facility preliminarily awarded Colombia 9M EUR to implement a program to reduce GHGs in its refrigeration sector. CCAP provided extensive technical, economic and policy input into the development of this NAMA. The Thai Refrigeration and Air Conditioning NAMA, was also selected for support by the NAMA Facility at COP20.
CCAP is also a proud partner of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition (CCAC), which, through demonstration projects, research and information exchange, has helped make the case that HFC reductions are a technically and economically feasible way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The Kigali deal is a great achievement and sends a strong signal that the entire global community is committed to addressing climate change. As we do for traditional greenhouse gasses, CCAP will continue to support developing countries to implement transformational policies and actions that reduce HFCs and address global climate change.