Why are HFCs so important?
Caps and cuts on the use of hydrofluorocarbons will begin by 2019
A look at hydrof luorocarbons and the specifics of the deal.
Nearly 200 nations have reached a deal, announced Saturday morning after allnight negotiations in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, to limit the use of greenhouse gases far more powerful than carbon dioxide in a major effort to fight climate change.
The talks on hydrof luorocarbons, or HFCs, were 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. Experts say cutting them is the fastest way to reduce global warming.
The United States, the world’s second-worst polluter, is among the countries that want to quickly phase out the use of HFCs, and now it is bound to take the earliest action, starting by 2019.
A small group of countries, including India, Pakistan and some Persian Gulf states, pushed for and secured a later start in 2028. That’s three years earlier than India, the world’s thirdworst polluter, had first proposed.
Here’s a look at what it all means.
How we got here: the ozone layer
In 1987, countries alarmed by the discovery of a huge hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica signed a treaty known as the Montreal Protocol to eventually end the use of chlorofluorocarbons, which at the time were used in refrigerators and aerosols such as hair spray.
HFCs were introduced to replace them. Scientists realized only later that, while HFCs don’t harm the ozone layer, they have a strong effect on global warming. Their ability to trap the heat radiating off the Earth is hundreds or thousands of times more potent than that of carbon dioxide.
Although less plentiful than carbon dioxide, their danger has grown as air conditioner and refrigerator sales have soared in emerging economies such as China and India.
Who wanted what and when
The United Nations Environment Program has said that reducing HFCs under an extension of the Montreal Protocol could reduce global warming by half a degree Celsius by the end of this century.
Environmental groups came into the global meeting in Kigali saying the step was essential to meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change, which was reached last year.
The U.S., with Secretary of State John F. Kerry leading the delegation, was among the countries pushing for action within the next five years.
Small island states and many African countries had also pushed for early time frames, saying they face the biggest threat from climate change.
China, the world’s top polluter, was among the countries aiming at the middle of the next decade. India, the world’s thirdworst polluter, preferred as late as 2031, saying it needed time for its economy to grow.
A sleepless night and a deal
Not long after midnight Saturday, environmental groups said a deal had taken shape, but it took hours for countries to haggle every piece into place.
The new agreement caps and reduces the use of HFCs in a gradual process. It begins by 2019, with action by developed countries including the United States.
More than 100 developing countries, including China, will start taking action by 2024, when their HFC consumption levels should peak and start heading down.
A small group of countries including India, Pakistan and some Persian Gulf states secured a later start in 2028.
Is it a good deal?
The agreement is not expected to achieve the half-degree-Celsius target by the end of the century, but it gets about 90% of the way there, said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development.
Zaelke’s group said this is the “largest temperature reduction ever achieved by a single agreement.”
The deal 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.
Experts said they hope that market forces will help speed up the limits agreed to in the deal.
Environmental groups were already turning their attention Saturday to other greenhouse gases.
“Acting on HFCs does not exempt us from acting on CO2 or other important greenhouse gases like methane,” said Carol Werner, executive director of the Environmental and Energy Study Institute, in a statement.