Photo: Alexandre Lecocq/Unsplash
- Phasing down HFCs is expected to achieve a nearly 90% reduction in global warming resulting from unconstrained HFC use.
- India said it will develop a national strategy for phasing down HFCs in the coming year, in consultation with the industry and conclude by 2023.
- The move to ratify the Kigali Amendment will further strengthen India’s position at the Montreal Protocol.
Ahead of the upcoming 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, countries are ramping up their climate ambition. India, a critical global stakeholder in charting a low carbon future, greatly exemplified its climate leadership today by approving the ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, the global pact to phase down super-warming hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
HFCs are on average several thousand times more potent than carbon dioxide. Phasing down HFCs – which are used in cooling appliances, insulating foams and more – is expected to avoid close to 0.5º C of warming by the end of the century and achieve a nearly 90% reduction in global warming resulting from unconstrained HFC use. Abated emissions from India representing a significant share of this total.
India’s ratification follows China’s earlier this year and will be the 123rd ratification of this important treaty amendment. India has for decades played a key role in bringing about the success of the Montreal protocol, the hugely successful international environmental treaty on which the Kigali Amendment is based. India’s ratification of the Kigali Amendment sends a strong signal to the rest of world about its commitment to the treaty moving forward, encouraging other countries to ratify and signalling that a rapid global market transition is soon to begin.
As part of the announcement to ratify, the government also laid timelines for putting together the implementation strategy. India will develop a national strategy for phasing down HFCs in the coming year, in consultation with the industry, and conclude by 2023. The government also plans to update its existing legal framework by mid-2024 to phase out ozone-depleting substances (the Ozone Depleting Substances (Regulation and Control) Rules to allow appropriate control of the production and consumption of Hydrofluorocarbons to ensure compliance with the Kigali Amendment.
India’s commitment to phasing down HFCs will usher in global and domestic environmental and economic benefits. It will give a boost to India’s domestic manufacturing and employment generation goals, spurring domestic innovation and attracting international investments. The global marketplace is shifting to low-GWP refrigerant production, and early adoption of low-GWP refrigerants will lead to a competitive advantage. Manufacturers and stakeholders agree that the Montreal Protocol is an effective vehicle for refrigerant market transformation, including room ACs. Early adoption now signals to the industry that India will continue to have strong demand for low-GWP equipment; this will help attract industry to manufacture in India.
Ratification is also yet another step forward in India’s climate change and cooling commitments. In a country already experiencing extreme heat waves, which is likely to further intensify as per a new climate report, cooling is an absolute necessity. Ratifying the Kigali Amendment demonstrates that India has a plan to provide much-needed cooling for millions while balancing the need to protect the environment. Adopting low-GWP refrigerants will enable India to achieve both its development and climate action targets.
This move also further strengthens India’s position at the Montreal Protocol. India has already established strong climate credentials from its work on the Montreal Protocol for several decades. Ratifying the Kigali Amendment further strengthens India’s influence and goodwill around the globe, and will help bolster its efforts to establish smart policies and bylaws, including energy efficiency, while phasing down HFCs.
India showed leadership in 2019, when it was one of the first countries to release the India Cooling Action Plan (ICAP), which sets domestic targets for cooling efficiency and refrigerants. ICAP provides short-, medium- and long-term recommendations on interventions across differing refrigerant sectors to reduce HFC usage, cooling demand and advance sustainable cooling and thermal comfort for all. India’s ratification will help advance the progress made thus far and ramp up ICAP’s implementation.
India has also proactively implemented and accelerated its efforts to phase out first-generation fluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs – the predecessors to HFCs) under the Montreal Protocol, taking decisive domestic action and accelerating its phase-down past stated commitments. India’s HCFC Phase-out Management Plan 2 (HPMP2) also includes plans for India’s largest AC manufacturers to switch to a refrigerant known as R-32, which has relatively lower GWP than HFC 410a and HCFCs.
The adoption of R-32 through HPMP-2 is enabling India to leapfrog high-GWP refrigerant R 410A. Its industries have already led the world in developing alternatives for HFCs. The insulating foams sector, a major prior user of fluorinated gases, has avoided uptake of HFCs almost entirely. And India’s room AC market has the largest segment of climate-friendly R-290-based models in the world.
The HFC phasedown is part of what it will take to meet India’s vast unmet cooling demand sustainably in the future, which is expected to grow by nearly eight times by 2037 compared to 2017. To meet this, demand for refrigerant is set to grow by nearly as much in the coming three decades, growth that, thanks to India’s adoption of the Kigali Amendment and formal ratification, will now be met by gases that do not significantly impact climate.
There is still a lot to be done to identify and scale up manufacturing of these new substances and products, but an affirmation by the Indian Government on HFCs sends a strong signal to the industry that the HFC phase-down is afoot and the time to innovate has arrived. This will also lead to a ripple effect, encouraging other major economies to ratify and moving the Amendment to universal ratification, sooner than later.
Prima Madan is cooling and energy efficiency lead consultant, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) India Program. Alex Hillbrand is HFC advocate, climate and clean energy and international programs, NRDC.