G-20 Nations Agree to Phase Down Use of HFCs

President Obama and President Xi at the G-20. Credit: AP Images

On September 6, the G-20 announced an agreement to phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a group of manmade chemicals that are highly-potent greenhouse gases. HFCs can have up to 12,000 times the warming impact as an equal mass of carbon dioxide, though most have relatively short atmospheric lifetimes. Global HFC emissions are on track to double in the next decade, which would significantly accelerate the rate of warming. The new agreement provides a pathway to curb global warming in the short term as world leaders continue to work for major cuts in carbon dioxide emissions.

The G-20 leaders announced their support for using the Montreal Protocol to scale down HFC consumption and production in a multilateral statement, the G-20 Leaders Declaration . The agreement calls for the use of the Montreal Protocol as a complement to current work done under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol, which reports and accounts for emissions. Signatories to the agreement include all G-20 members (Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and the European Union), as well as Ethiopia, Spain, Senegal, Brunei, Kazakhstan and Singapore.

Durwood Zaelke, President of the Institute for Governance & Sustainable Development and leading proponent of global HFC reductions, was encouraged by the news. “The G20 agreement leaves little if any opposition to the HFC amendment,” Zaelke said in a statement. "This is the biggest climate prize available to the world in the next few years, providing mitigation equivalent to 100 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide by 2050 and avoiding up to nearly 1 degree Fahrenheit (0.5 Celsius) in warming by 2100.”

The G-20 announcement came only hours after the United States and China made a bilateral agreement to take the next step alongside other countries to collectively phase down HFCs with the Montreal Protocol. President Obama and President Xi also expressed their desire to form an open-ended contact group to consider issues relevant to cutting down HFCs, including appropriate financial and technological support to developing countries as they go through the process. The U.S. China agreement expands on an earlier HFC accord between President Obama and President Xi (see June 10 issue of Climate Change News ). In a joint statement , the leaders said "we reiterate our firm commitment to work together and with other countries to agree on a multilateral solution."

Hydrofluorocarbons are commonly used in refrigerators, air conditioners, aerosols and insulation foam. They were adopted as a replacement for ozone-depleting chemicals as a result of the original 1987 Montreal Protocol, but their extremely strong warming effect has made them an unsuitable replacement. Domestic legislative efforts are currently underway in the United States to complement the international efforts, including the Super Pollutant Emissions Reduction (SUPER) Act of 2013 ( H.R. 1943 ). The SUPER Act would create a federal task force to coordinate agency efforts to reduce HFCs and other strong global warming agents.

Author: Laura Small