EU to join US and China on proposals to tackle ‘super greenhouse gases’

The EU will join the US and China in backing proposals to phase out hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) – a “super greenhouse gas” used for air-conditioning and refrigeration – under the UN’s 1987 Montreal Protocol later this month.

At their weekend summit meeting in California, US president Barack Obama and Chinese president Xi Jinping agreed to work together to "phase down" the use of HFCs, which can be up to 15,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide (CO2).

Universal agreement
Achim Steiner, executive director of the UN Environment Programme, said this "could signal a new and perhaps transformational chapter in international co-operation on climate change . . . if it paves the way to a universal agreement involving all nations".

The European Commission’s Jacob Werksman also welcomed the move, saying agreement to phase out HFCs at the next Montreal Protocol meeting would “make a significant contribution” to reaching a wider deal on climate change in 2015.

Ironically, it was the Montreal Protocol’s success in phasing out chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) – both implicated in the depletion of the Earth’s protective ozone layer – that led to the use of HFCs as a replacement.

Were “business-as-usual” to continue, the use of HFCs would exceed the 1980s peak consumption of CFCs – primarily due to rising demand for air-conditioners and fridges in emerging economies – and emissions could equal the current total for transport.

Very fast growth
Philip O'Brien of Ireland's Environmental Protection Agency told an EU 'side-event' at the UN climate talks in Bonn that HFCs now accounted for just 1 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions but were growing "very fast" – by 10 to 15 per cent per year.

He said this trend was showing up in the measurements made by the Mace Head Observatory in Co Galway, which also charted the decline to almost zero in the concentration of CFCs in the atmosphere – as a direct result of the Montreal Protocol.

Knock-on problem
Although "very effective" in controlling CFCs, he said this was "at the risk of creating a knock-on problem" involving replacement HFCs. This needed to be addressed "if we are to stay below the 2-degree limit" in terms of global warming.

Dennis Clare, representing the Federated States of Micronesia, said there was a “moral obligation” to deal with HFCs under the Montreal Protocol, as it had “helped to create the problem”, and to signal to the world that there were already alternatives.

Arno Kaschl of the European Commission said studies had shown that getting rid of HFCs was "low-hanging fruit" in terms of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, and a proposed freeze on their use in new equipment was now at an advanced stage.