An international accord designed to address the growing hole in the ozone layer may take on new significance in the effort to reduce the emissions of climate-warming greenhouse gases. It just won’t be happening this year.

An effort to expand the Montreal Protocol to include the industrial chemicals known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) fell apart late last week in Bangkok as negotiators from a small block of developing countries were unwilling to sign on to a declaration that would have begun that process (see declaration below).

“So at one level, it appears that the HFC deadlock from last year continues unchanged,” writes David Doniger at NRDC Switchboard. But the growing support for curbing HFCs made evident by the 91 countries that signed on to a declaration at the close of the meetings in Bangkok was enough to make Doniger and others hopeful.

Found in appliances all over the world, HFCs are greenhouse gasses thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.

HFCs are currently covered under the UNFCC, but considering the successful record the Montreal Protocol has had in eliminating the use of dozens of ozone-harming chemicals, many believe that expanding Montreal to include HFCs offers the best hope for significant international movement on climate for the immediate future.

“Eliminating HFCs under the Montreal Protocol is the single biggest chunk of climate protection we can get in the next few years,” said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, an organization that has been pushing hard to expand the scope of the Montreal Protocol to include HFCs.

Not only would expanding the ozone treaty into climate protection be the most politically viable route on the table right now, a new report (pdf) says using existing mechanisms put in place by the Montreal Protocol to produce reductions in greenhouse gas emissions is more cost-effective than any other international plan.

Despite widespread acceptance of the proposal by both governments and industry alike, a group of countries including China, India and Brazil, were uncomfortable with expanding the scope of the treaty this year, arguing that the timetable for transition was too rapid and that payments from wealthy nations for eliminating the refrigerant are not high enough.

But with 91 countries signing on to the declaration, the good news is that significant progress was made over last year.

“[T]he North American and island countries have worked diplomatically both to gain supporters and to engage China and India,” writes NRDC’s Doniger. “While India has remained inflexible, key Chinese officials have signaled that curbing HFCs is an issue they can discuss.”

Full text of the HFC declaration by the 91 parties:

Declaration on the Global Transition Away From Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

Afghanistan, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Austria, Australia, Bahamas, Bangladesh, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bosnia and Herzegovinia, Bulgaria, Burkina Faso, Cambodia, Cameroon, Canada, Columbia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Egypt, Estonia, European Union, Federated States of Micronesia, Finland, France, Gabon, Gambia, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Greece, Haiti, Hungary, Indonesia, Iraq, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritius, Macedonia, Malta, Mexico, Micronesia, Montenegro, Mozambique, Myanmar, Netherlands, New Zealand, Nicaragua, Niger, Nigeria, Norway, Palau, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Saint Lucia, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Somalia, Sri Lanka, Sweden, Switzerland, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America, Vietnam

Article by Timothy B. Hurst, appearing courtesy ecopolitology.

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The explosive growth of modern refrigerants, originally developed to replace ozone-destroying chemicals, could become a significant cause of global warming if they are not soon replaced by a new class of coolants, according to Dutch and U.S. researchers.

Reporting in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the scientists said that hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – now used in most air conditioning in cars and buildings – are a potent greenhouse gas whose heat-trapping effects currently equal less than one percent of all CO2 emissions worldwide. But booming economic growth in the developing world and the rapid spread of air conditioning mean that by 2050 HFCs could cause at least 25 percent of human-induced global warming, the study said.

HFCs came into widespread use when they replaced ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons two decades ago. The good news is that industry is now developing a new class of more benign refrigerants, and researchers and policy makers are calling on the global community to phase out HFCs, much as chlorofluorocarbons were eliminated under the 1989 Montreal Protocol.

This article originally appeared on Yale Environment 360 at http://e360.yale.edu

[photo credit: niallkennedy]

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