And the Montreal Protocol has a fairly good track record on ensuring climate benefits as well. CFCs, the predecessors to HFCs, were also greenhouse gases, apart from being ozone-depleting. Their phase-out has already avoided an estimated 135 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions between 1990 and 2010. This is three times the current annual greenhouse gas emissions. The UNEP estimates that, with Kigali Amendment, the avoided emissions could touch 420 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent by the end of the century.

India’s efforts
India had played a key role in negotiating the Kigali Amendment. It had fought hard to get an extended timeline for itself, and some other countries, for the reduction of HFC use. This was considered important for the domestic industry which was still in the process of transitioning from HCFCs to HFCs. The climate-friendly alternatives to HFCs are not yet widely available at low cost. The extended timeline was meant to give the industry some cushion to make the transition.

Despite being one of the main architects of the Kigali Amendment, India was the last major country to announce its decision to ratify it. There wasn’t ever any doubt over its ratification, and it was more like a waiting game to see what China or the United States did. In the meanwhile, however, India had unveiled an ambitious action plan for the cooling industry which accounts for the phase-out of HFCs.

The 20-year ‘India Cooling Action Plan’, or ICAP, released in 2019, describes cooling as a “developmental need” and seeks to address the rising demand in cooling, from buildings to transport to cold-chains, through sustainable actions. The plan estimates that the national cooling demand would grow eight times in the next 20 years, which would result in a corresponding five to eight-fold rise in the demand for refrigerants that involve the use of HFCs. The ICAP aims to bring down the refrigerant demand by 25 to 30 per cent in the next 20 years.

As part of the ICAP, the government has also announced targeted R&D efforts aimed at developing low-cost alternatives to HFCs. Such efforts are already underway at the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Chemical Technology and IIT Bombay.

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■ International Relations UPSC GPSC
■ Sanket Raghuvanshi, JJ Tutorials, Rajkot

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