NEW DELHI: Brazil, South Africa, India and China, called the BASIC countries, appear to have moderated their opposition to discussions on phasing out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) as refrigerants.
HFCs are among the six greenhouse gases that are covered under the Kyoto Protocol, which is the only legally binding agreement to deal with global warming and climate change. These countries have opposed discussions on the matter in any multilateral forum other than the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change. But at a meeting this week in Foz du iguacu in Brazil, they decided that the HFC issue should be dealt "through relevant multilateral fora" and that these discussions should be guided by the principles and provisions of UNFCCC and Kyoto Protocol.
The meeting is significant as it marks a departure from the position these countries have held in the past. The four advanced developing countries, which are the growing markets for refrigerators and air conditioners, have also decided that availability of safe, technically and economically viable alternatives to HFCs should also be considered provided industrialised countries make available additional financial resources to developing countries.
The change in stance could open the door for the beginning of an open-ended discussion on the phasing out of HFCs under the Montreal protocol, which is a global agreement for the protection of the ozone layer. At the June meeting of the working group on the Montreal Protocol, India had raised the issue of better evaluation of alternatives to HFCs in terms of technical and economic viability.
HFCs present a peculiar problem for the entire gamut of environment-related global negotiations. They were identified as cooling agents under the 1987 Montreal Protocol. The idea was to move from the use of ozone depleting cholofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydro cholorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) to a refrigerating agent like HFCs which was not harmful to the ozone layer.
HCFC 22 (hydro cloroflurocarbons) is the most common refrigerating agent used in India. Under the Montreal Protocol, India has to phase out use of HCFC by 2030. India's transition from HCFC began in January this year.
The replacement refrigerant agent HFC while addresses the issue of ozone depletion also comes with the attendant problem of contributing to global warming. It is among the six greenhouses gases identified for elimination or reduction under the global climate change agreement, Kyoto Protocol.
This agreement requires only the industrialised countries to take on binding quantified emission reduction targets.
With growing consurmerism and economic growth in the advanced developing countries, there is concern about the global warming that will necessarily accompany the increased use of HFCs in these countries. Industrialised countries have therefore been pushing for the amendment of Montreal protocol to address the issue of phasing out the use of HFCs.
