Global warming: what has changed since the Kigali amendment

On October 15^th 2016, 197 countries met to approve the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal protocol, leading to the decision to introduce strong measures to fight global warming, by reducing HydroFluorocarbon (HFC) emissions.

These compounds are powerful greenhouse gasses (used as refrigerants in air conditioning systems and refrigerators), capable of channelling a quantity of heat up to 15 thousand times greater than carbon dioxide, thereby having a considerable effect on climate change.

As set out in the agreements reached at the conference, the most developed countries must reduce their HFC consumption by 2019, while developing countries must do so by 2024-2028.  In fact, all countries will be obliged to reduce their HFC consumption by 15-20 % of their respective basic quotas by 2040.

In addition, it has been agreed that in order to obtain these results, developed nations must make a financial contribution equating to a few billion dollars, which will be used for research into finding alternatives to HFCs.

All this was established with the aim of upholding the pledges made at the Paris Climate Change Conference, where it was decided that every effort would be made to keep the rise in global temperature below 2 degrees C.

On July 17^th 2017 meanwhile, the fifth and final Kigali amendment to the Montreal protocol was approved by the European Union, in which the progressive reduction of the production and consumption of HFCs was incorporated.

However, as mentioned, there were five amendments in all and the previous four include:

• The one set out in decision 91/690/CEE of the Council;
• The one set out in decision 94/68/CE of the Council;
• The one set out in decision 2000/646/CE of the Council;
• The one set out in decision 2002/215/CE of the Council.

In December last year, the European Environment Agency (EEA) produced a report, in which it affirms that 2016 was the year which saw the lowest ever level of  HFC consumption  by the EU (since recording began in 2007).

However, that is not all:  in 2015, consumption was already 14% less in relation to the limits which must not be exceeded in Europe by 2019. This is a very encouraging phenomenon, which brings hope that in the future we might actually be able to exert a much more effective control over those substances which damage the ozone layer.

The report produced by the EEA also states that the supply of fluorinated gases fell by 2 percentage points in 2016 in terms of the equivalent amount of carbon dioxide, even though an overall increase in total volume was apparent.

This certainly derives from the use of more environmentally-friendly gases which have less potential to cause global warming. These gases, as well as being better adapted to climate requirements, have a much more limited environmental impact.

The results in the report show that, although imports by the European Union of fluorinated gases have risen by 2%, bulk imports of hydrofluorocarbons have in fact fallen by 4%.

This is a brief overview of the situation following the Kigali amendment, which has no doubt led to very significant progress, also and especially at European level, where the pledges already made seem to have been taken very seriously.

Despite the successes mentioned above, it is essential that efforts continue so that all the nations of the world will continue down this path. It is a journey of no return, which will enable us to reduce, at least in part, the main causes of global warming.

Translated by Joanne Beckwith