According to a recent report, hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) has been illegally entering European soils despite existing regulations.
Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC)
- While HFCs do not deplete the stratospheric ozone layer, they have high global warming potential ranging from 12 to 14,000, which have adverse impact on climate.
- HFCs are super greenhouse gases. HFCs are also short-lived climate pollutants with atmospheric lifetimes between 15 and 29 years.
- HFCs are commonly used in refrigeration and air-conditioning.
- HFCs are not waste products but are intentionally produced synthetic molecules.
- They are responsible for 2.3 per cent of current global GHG emissions.
- Globally, HFCs are being phased down under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer.
- In 2016, the world adopted The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer in response to the threat posed by HFCs to the global climate.
- The gradual phase-down of HFCs under the Kigali Amendment will avoid up to half a degree of warming by the end of the century.
- Europe was the first to take concrete steps. Under its F-gas under Regulation, HFC producers and importers are required to hold a quota to be able to place HFCs since 2015.
- India has ratified the Kigali Amendment.
- As per India’s commitment to the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer for phase down of HFC, the country will complete its phase down of HFCs in four steps from 2032 onwards, with cumulative reduction of 10 per cent in 2032, 20 per cent in 2037, 30 per cent in 2042 and 85 per cent in 2047.
