Why the Philippines must ratify the Kigali Amendment

The Philippines achieved a key milestone in its fight against climate change when it ratified the Paris Agreement last year. Being highly vulnerable to the impacts of extreme events, it is important for the country to take immediate action towards reducing the impacts of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide on the global and local climate.

However, The Climate Reality Project Philippines said that the government needs to pay attention also to the growing threat of "super greenhouse gases", hydrofluorocarbons. And to address this, the Philippines must immediately ratify the KigaliAmendment to the Montreal Protocol.

Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are purely man-made substances commonly used as cooling agents for various purposes, such as air-conditioning, refrigeration systems, fire retardants, and solvents for cleaning products. They are classified as short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs), generally staying in the atmosphere for shorter periods than greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide.

HFCs were manufactured as substitutes for ozone-depleting substances (ODS) such as CFCs and HCFCs, which were globally banned under the Montreal Protocol in 1987. In contrast to these substances, HFCs cause much less degradation to the ozone layer. The ODS phaseout has led to the gradual healing of the ozone layer, which is necessary for maintaining environmental stability.

Nearly half (47 percent) of global HFC consumption comes from refrigeration and non-mobile air-conditioning from residential and commercial areas. Around a quarter (24 percent) of HFC use is for automobile air-conditioning, and 11 percent comes from industrial foaming agents.

However, HFCs have high global warming potential (GWP), or a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere. For instance, HFC-23, a common refrigerant and fire suppressant, has a GWP that is 14800 times higher than that of carbon dioxide. Its emissions have also increased six-fold from 1978 to 2005. One of the most common air-conditioning SLCPs, HFC-134a was previously undetected before the 1990s.

Currently, HFCs are responsible for only 1 percent of global warming. However, higher temperatures will lead to increased emissions due to a projected increased usage of air-conditioning and refrigeration among consumers, especially in developing nations. Without proper measures to reduce emissions, HFCs would constitute around 7-19 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A study published in 2013 reveals that an accelerated global HFC phasedown can prevent a 0.5 degree Celsius of global warming by 2100, which is around 90 percent of the temperature increase they would have caused otherwise. This makes the HFC phasedown important for achieving the 1.5-degree Celsius target under the Paris Agreement. Thus, it is crucial for all countries to rapidly reduce their emissions.

The Kigali Amendment was adopted in October 2016 in Rwanda as an addition to the Montreal Protocol, one of the most successful international agreements on environmental protection in history. Aiming to reduce HFC emissions, it will enter into force on January 1, 2019 after having been ratified by at least 20 countries.

Under the amendment, Parties will commit to an HFC phasedown based on the principle of "common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities". Developed countries (or non-Article 5 Parties) will follow a more stringent reduction schedule, needing to cut 85 percent of their emissions by 2036.

John LeoAlgo

Science Policy Associate

The Climate Reality Project Philippines