10 Years of Kigali Amendment:
The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol marked its 10th anniversary on October 15, 2026, putting renewed focus on global commitments to curb potent hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) to avert up to 0.5°C of warming by 2100.
- Kigali Amendment is a legally binding international treaty amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, mandating the gradual phase-down of the production and consumption of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs)—potent greenhouse gases commonly used in air conditioning and refrigeration.
- Administered under the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Ozone Secretariat and supported financially and technically by the Multilateral Fund for the Implementation of the Montreal Protocol.
- While the Montreal Protocol succeeded in phasing out nearly 99% of ozone-depleting substances (like CFCs and HCFCs), industry shifted to HFCs as alternatives because they do not damage stratospheric ozone.
- However, HFCs act as potent short-lived climate pollutants (SLCPs) with Global Warming Potentials (GWPs) hundreds to thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide (CO2).
- Proposed originally in 2009 by the Federated States of Micronesia and Mauritius, governments formally adopted the amendment on October 15, 2016, in Kigali, Rwanda, and it entered into legal force on January 1, 2019.
- Aim is to phase down global HFC production and consumption by more than 80% to 85% over three decades, preventing catastrophic warming and avoiding an estimated 0.3°C to 0.5°C of global temperature rise by 2100.
Key Features of the Kigali Amendment:
- Establishes a four-group architecture dividing countries into developed (non-Article 5) and developing (Article 5) tiers, giving developing nations longer transition windows to adopt alternatives.
- India (grouped under Article 5 Group 2 alongside nations like Pakistan, Iran, and Gulf states) ratified the pact in 2021; it must freeze its HFC baseline in 2028, execute an initial 10% cut by 2032, and achieve an 85% cumulative reduction by 2047.
- Unlike ozone-depleting substances that were completely eliminated, the treaty permits a residual baseline (15% to 20%) to accommodate specialized industrial, medical, and niche cooling applications where zero-GWP substitutes are unfeasible.
- Provides dedicated grant-based financing and technology transfer to developing economies to cover incremental costs, retrofit manufacturing facilities, and train service technicians.
- By driving equipment redesign toward low-GWP refrigerants (hydrocarbons, hydrofluoroolefins, ammonia), the treaty encourages simultaneous energy-efficiency improvements, which the UNEP and IEA estimate can double the climate mitigation benefits.
