Kigali Accord

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol is an international agreement to gradually reduce the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The amendment was agreed upon at the twenty-eighth Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol held on October 15, 2016, in Kigali. In decision XXVIII / 1, they adopted an amendment to the Protocol (the Kigali Amendment).[1]

Kigali Accord
TypeEnvironmental protection agreement
ContextMontreal Protocol (1985)
SignedOctober 15, 2016 (2016-10-15)
LocationKigali, Rwanda
EffectiveJanuary 1, 2019 (2019-01-01)
Parties100

The Kigali Amendment is a legally binding international agreement[2] designed to create rights and obligations in international law. The Amendment is only legally binding on a Party if it has entered into force with respect to that Party.

As of July 2020, 99 states and the European Union had ratified the Kigali Amendment.[3]

Context

Many industrial products, including heat pumps that operate on a refrigerant and propellant aerosols, require non-flammable fluids capable of passing easily from gaseous state to liquid state and having significant latent heat.

Historically, chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) were used in these applications, but we discovered in the 1970s the deleterious effect of these gases on the ozone layer, which is rewarded by a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1995.[4] The Montreal Protocol, signed in 1985 by many states and entered into force in 1989, decided to phase out CFCs. The use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) then developed as a replacement.

However, if these gases save the ozone layer, they are powerful greenhouse gases. Their lifespan in the atmosphere is quite short, but they filter infrared very strongly: for example, HFC-23 has a global warming potential (PRG) at 100 years 12400.[5] It therefore appears that eliminating emissions of these gases could significantly limit, and in the short term, global warming.

Content of the agreement

The Montreal Protocol creates a separate regime for developing countries.[6]

The Kigali Accord, on the other hand, divides states into 4 groups:[7]

  1. Parties "Article 5 - Group 1"
  2. Parties "Article 5 - Group 2": Bahrain, India, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.
  3. Parties
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References
  1. United Nations Environment Program, Montreal Protocol Secretariat, Ratification of the Kigali Amendment , information note (February 2017), http://conf.montreal-protocol.org/meeting/oewg/oewg-39/presession/briefingnotesfr/ratification_kigali_E.pdf (page consulted on April 12, 2019)
  2. The Amendment is only legally binding on a Party if it has entered into force with respect to that -ci (Source: http://conf.montreal-protocol.org/meeting/oewg/oewg-39/presession/briefingnotesfr/ratification_kigali_E.pdf)
  3. "United Nations Treaty Collection". treaties.un.org. Retrieved 2020-05-18.
  4. "Press Release: The 1995 Nobel Prize in Chemistry". Retrieved October 16, 2016.
  5. "ADEME - Site Bilans GES". bilans-ges.ademe.fr. Retrieved 2016-02-02.
  6. Montreal Protocol, Article 5
  7. "Resumed 38th Meeting of the Open-ended Working Group (OEWG 38) of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol".
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