In news- India has decided to ratify the Kigali amendment to Montreal Protocol, following the similar decisions taken by the United States and China, the world’s largest producers and consumers of HFCs. .
About Montreal Protocol-
- The Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer is the multilateral environmental agreement that regulates the production and consumption of nearly 100 man-made chemicals referred to as ozone depleting substances (ODS).
- Adopted on 15 September 1987, the Protocol is to date the only UN treaty ever that has been ratified by every country on Earth – all 197 UN Member States.
- Developing and developed countries have equal but differentiated responsibilities, with both groups of countries having binding, time-targeted and measurable commitments.
- The substances controlled by the treaty are listed in-
Annex A – CFCs, halons
Annex B – other fully halogenated CFCs, carbon tetrachloride, methyl chloroform
Annex C – HCFCs
Annex E – methyl bromide
Annex F – HFCs
- The Meeting of the Parties is the governance body for the treaty.
- The Parties are assisted by the Ozone Secretariat, based at the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) headquarters in Nairobi, Kenya.
- It provides financial and technical assistance to developing country parties to the Montreal Protocol whose annual per capita consumption and production of ODS is less than 0.3 kg to comply with the control measures of the Protocol.
About Kigali Amendment:
- Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), were introduced as non-ozone depleting alternatives to support the timely phase out of CFCs and HCFCs.
- While these chemicals do not deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, they are potential Greenhouse gases (GHGs).
- At the 28th Meeting of the Parties (MoP) of Montreal Protocol held in October 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda decision was taken to phase-down HFCs.
- The Kigali Amendment entered into force on 1 January 2019 for those countries that have ratified the amendment.
- Developing countries will follow with a freeze of HFCs consumption levels in 2024 and in 2028 for some nations.
- 122 countries had ratified the Kigali Amendment by the end of July, 2021.
- Under the Kigali amendment, the United States, China and India are in separate groups of countries, with different time schedules to phase out their HFCs and replace them with climate-friendly alternatives.
- India has to reduce its HFC use by 80 per cent by the year 2047, while China and the United States have to achieve the same target by the year 2045 and 2034 respectively.
- India’s reductions have to begin only after 2028.
Source: The Hindu
