The Senate pushed a major climate treaty over the finish line today — with support from Republican lawmakers and the manufacturing industry.
Now there’s a sentence you may not have seen coming.
But the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol has garnered bipartisan support since the United States helped broker the agreement in 2016, writes POLITICO’s E&E News reporter Jean Chemnick.
That’s in part because U.S. manufacturers have spent years turning the treaty into a lucrative business opportunity. The Kigali Amendment aims to phase out a class of superpolluting chemicals used in air conditioners and refrigerators, and American companies now hold patents to the products that the world will use to replace them. The U.S. industry had much to lose if the treaty failed to win approval.
This is the kind of wide-ranging political and business alliance that has so far eluded the larger fight against climate change.
The original Montreal Protocol, finalized in 1987, is another noteworthy success story. It countered a threat to the Earth’s protective ozone layer by curbing use of one class of air conditioning and refrigerant chemicals.
But the type of chemicals manufacturers used as a replacement — called hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs — turned out to be some of the most potent greenhouse gases out there.
The Kigali Amendment aims to phase out production and consumption of HFCs worldwide, and according to the Environmental Protection Agency, that could limit atmospheric warming by a half-degree Celsius. In a world on track to warm by more than 2 degrees Celsius — which would lead to some catastrophic impacts — half a degree makes a significant difference.
More than 130 countries signed on to the amendment, which was inked in Kigali, Rwanda, in 2016. The United States helped broker the agreement but never ratified it until today — despite its bipartisan support. Still, the U.S. has taken steps to comply with its provisions. Congress passed a law in 2020 that gave EPA the authority to phase out HFC production over 15 years.
China and India, countries responsible for the bulk of HFC emissions, also adopted ambitious plans to reduce use of the compounds.
But the global commitment to dispense with HFCs has not necessarily translated into actual reductions. A 2020 study published in the journal Nature Communications found that despite the Kigali Amendment, emissions have actually increased. In 2018, they were higher than at any point in history. The researchers concluded there must be substantial unreported production.
It’s Wednesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO’s Power Switch. I’m your host, Arianna Skibell. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to [email protected]
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