ENVIRONMENT Secretary Roy A. Cimatu has called on the air-conditioning and refrigeration sector to support the gradual phasedown of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs are powerful greenhouse gases (GHG) that contribute to global warming.
The Philippines is joining the celebration of the International Day for the Preservation of the Ozone Layer on September 16. Incidentally, the day also marks the 30th anniversary of the signing of the landmark Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone.
The gains from the Montreal Protocol, particularly the phaseout of several ozone-depleting substances (ODS), are being threatened by the use of HFCs as alternative refrigerants, Cimatu said in a news statement issued on Thursday.
“HFCs are not ODS, but are potent GHG, which can have high global- warming potentials and are rapidly increasing in the atmosphere,” Cimatu warned.
“Without any mechanism to control HFCs, it is predicted that its emissions could negate the climate benefits achieved by the Montreal Protocol,” he added.
Commonly used in refrigerators and air-conditioning systems, the HFCs are called “super greenhouse gases” with a warming effect that can be several thousand times greater than carbon dioxide.
HFCs were developed after the phaseout of the ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons and hydrochlorofluorocarbons required by the Montreal Protocol in 1987.
The climate benefit of reducing HFC emissions has been widely recognized, leading to an amendment of the Montreal Protocol, known as the Kigali Amendment, calling for developed countries to start to phase down HFCs by 2019, and in developing countries, including the Philippines, to follow with a freeze by 2024.
Adopted on October 15, 2016, in Rwanda, and expected to enter into force on January 1, 2019, the Kigali Amendment aims to avoid nearly half a degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century.