One day the West had thought to have found the solution against an escalating threat to the climate and were pleased to change the refrigerators gases with hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to
save the ozone layer.
So
when nations signed the Montreal Protocol in 1987
– which aimed to save the ozone layer by banning ozone-eating
chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) from use in aerosols, refrigerators and
air-conditioning units – few questioned the idea that ozone-friendly
hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) would make a great substitute.
But although HFCs did not destroy the ozone layer, they were potent
greenhouse gases.
After almost 30 years, and with the manufacture of HFCs rising
globally by 7 per cent each year, that mistake is about to be put right.
Seven years and requiring many determined advocates — major
Western
governments, the small island nation of Micronesia, poor
African nations
that fear drought and even starvation and persistent environmental
groups reached an accord in
Kigali, Rwanda, in October following the ratification by enough
countries of last year’s
Paris agreement broadly reducing greenhouse
gases to allow it to take effect, as well as a narrower agreement to
limit emissions from aircraft. It completes a trifecta of diplomatic
accords aimed at keeping the rise in global temperatures below 3.6
degrees Fahrenheit (two
degrees Celsius) over the average preindustrial
temperatures — a point beyond which the manifest consequences of climate
change, including rising sea levels and droughts, are likely to become
exponentially worse.
Despite obvious threats to their
populations from rising sea levels and droughts, some developing
countries like India pushed back hard, in part because their people were
on the verge of being able to afford air-conditioners powered by
HFCs.
Although
they now make up only a small part of the greenhouse gases in the
atmosphere, HFCs are extremely powerful heat-trappers and, if left
unchecked, would make it hard not to exceed the 3.6 degree threshold.
One factor driving the negotiations was the rapid growth of
air-conditioning in nations like
China and India.
HFCs
were once seen as a technological godsend. They were developed in
response to the 1987
Montreal Protocol, a global agreement requiring
nations and manufacturers to find a substitute for chlorofluorocarbons,
or
CFCs, then the dominant refrigerant, which was destroying the
planet’s ozone layer. The chemical industry replaced that chemical with
HFCs, which don’t harm the ozone layer but, as it turned out, added
greatly to global warming.
The richest countries, including the
United States, will freeze
production and consumption of HFCs by 2018; much of the rest of the
world, including China, Brazil and all of Africa, will do the same by
2024; and a few nations, including India, will have until 2028. Several
newer and less harmful refrigerants are available, although they may be
more expensive in the short run. The timetable will allow poorer
countries to wait until prices come down. But unlike the Paris
agreement, which consists of voluntary pledges, this one will be
mandatory, with trade sanctions for nations that do not comply.
Mattlan Zackhras, the minister-in-assistance to the president of the Marshall Islands, said in a statement
"It may not be entirely what the islands wanted, but it is a good deal,"
and expressed his hope
"We all know we must go further, and we will go further."
Erik Solheim, executive director of the
UN Environment Program, said
"This is about much more than the ozone layer and HFCs. It is a clear
statement by all world leaders that the green transformation started in
Paris is irreversible and unstoppable."
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