The Montreal Protocol Out-Kyotos Kyoto
The Montreal Protocol Parties agreed in September of 2007 to speed the phase-out of hydroclorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), the gases which are used in a variety of equipment and fire fighting foams, by providing up to 16 billion tons or more of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) in climate mitigation by the year 2040. What is so striking about this agreement is that it will achieve significantly more than the Kyoto Protocol sought to achieve during its entire first commitment period. Moreover, in July of this year, less than a year later, the leaders of the world’s 17 major economies pledged to continue these Montreal Protocol-based efforts, recognizing the need for urgent action and committing to act without delay to strengthen the Montreal Protocol for climate benefits. At about the same time, the Montreal Protocol parties met in Bangkok to follow on the major economies' endorsement of Montreal as, in effect, a “climate treaty” while still furthering the ozone layer protection goals of the original Montreal agreement. At the July meeting, Argentina, Micronesia, and Mauritius proposed strengthening the Protocol to reduce the 7.4 billion tons of CO2e that will be emitted by 2015 from discarded products and equipment if not properly recovered and destroyed.
Just two months from now, in November, critical negotiations on Montreal Protocol climate actions will take place in Doha, Qatar (November 16-20). In connection with these upcoming negotiations, Durwood Zaelke, the President of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, whose board I chair, stated that “the world’s leaders ... understand that the Montreal Protocol can deliver immediate climate benefits as it has been doing for the past 20 years.” For once we would do well to follow our leaders. The chief Montreal negotiator for Mauritius went further. Sateeaved Seebaluck said that the Montreal Protocol has been “the world’s life-preserver,” keeping us from passing tipping points for abrupt and irreversible climate change.
The Montreal Protocol story is instructive for other climate initiatives. For example, it sheds a different light on the much-maligned idea of using the Clean Air Act for climate protection purposes. Implementation of the stratospheric ozone protection provisions of the CAA pursuant to the Montreal Protocol contributed to the global Montreal climate agreement in 2007. Global emissions of fine particulate black carbon or elemental carbon, which scientists are now saying is second only to CO2 as a global warming source, dramatically alters the reflectivity (albedo) of the earth, particularly its ice and snowfields. Black carbon is not covered by either the Kyoto or the Montreal Protocol. But according to EPA and the Office of Management and Budget, fine particulates, PM 2.5, are the Clean Air Act's most damaging criteria pollutant, and EPA estimates that over 5 percent of US fine particulate emissions are black carbon. (Black carbon will be the subject of a future blog). The CAA may be an appropriate vehicle for controlling black carbon emissions, with Montreal-like payoffs for greenhouse effect reduction.
How to add hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) and perfluorocarbons (PFCs), both potent non-ODS families of Kyoto gases, to the Montreal regime is a topic for another day.
For more information see:
19th MOP HCFC Adjustments to Enter into Force May 2008
UNEP DTIE OzonAction Branch HCFCsNews
EPA Honors Montreal Protocol Champions for Protection of Climate
