Cabinet approves India’s position at Kigali conference

•  The Union Cabinet has given its approval to the negotiating position adopted by the Government of India at the recent Meeting of Parties (MoP) to the Montreal Protocol of the Vienna Convention for Protection of Ozone Layer that took place in October, 2016, in Kigali, Rwanda.
• The Cabinet has also approved the proposal of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change to argue for adoption of an appropriate baseline years from out of 3 options within a range of 2024 to 2030 with freeze in a subsequent year.
• The flexibility of using any of the options within this range with a combination of the features of the proposed options in consultation with the Government has also been approved.

About Kigali agreement:

• It’s been agreed that HFC manufacture and use will peak in three phases: Much of the industrialised first world will do so by 2018, China, Brazil and Africa by 2024; and India, Pakistan and many others by 2028.
• And over the years, its production and use will be made to decline to 15-20% of an agreed peak, with a different timeframe for each of these three country groupings.
• India will have to reduce its use to one-seventh its 2025 levels by 2047. They will be replaced by other refrigerants that are less harmful climatically.
• The announcement came at Kigali where 197 countries that are party to the Montreal Protocol were trying to negotiate a deal to substantially reduce the use of HFCs by 2030.
• The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is legally binding.
• By the late 2040s, all countries are expected to consume no more than 15-20% of their respective baselines. Overall, the agreement is expected to reduce HFC use by 85% by 2045.
• As per the agreement, China, which is the largest producer of HFCs in the world, will reduce HFC use by 80% by 2045 over the 2020-22 baseline. India will reduce the use of HFCs by 85% over the 2024-26 baseline.
• The countries negotiating at Kigali also agreed to provide adequate financing for HFCs reduction—which runs in billions of dollars globally. The exact amount of additional funding will be agreed at the next meeting of the Parties in Montreal, in 2017.
• The amendment will enter into force on 1 January, 2019, provided that at least 20 instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval of the Amendment have been deposited by states or regional economic integration organisations that are parties to the Montreal Protocol on substances that deplete the Ozone Layer.

By: Vishal