CLIMATE CHANGE FIGHT TAKEN TO GROWING HFCs IN CRUCIAL VIENNA MEETING

  • HFCs are a man-made greenhouse gas, more potent than carbon dioxide with their production on the rise.
  • This week’s meeting in Vienna negotiating agreement to secure global phasedown.

Fridges in Hackney Wick

Fridges in Hackney Wick

Image by Matt Brown


Speaking from Vienna, Benson Ireri, Christian Aid’s Senior Policy Officer, was pleased that progress had been significant. He said: “In Paris last year the world took great strides towards tackling climate change and securing a safe, clean and prosperous planet. But if we ignore the growing danger of HFCs then we risk all that good work unraveling. 

“In Vienna this week we saw concrete progress made on an amendment to the Montreal Protocol which would see HFCs phased out and replaced with non-polluting alternatives. This essential transition needs to be led by developed countries and for them to offer assistance to poorer nations so they can quickly follow suit. 

“There is also an opportunity here for developing countries. In the same way African countries have leapfrogged landline telephones for mobiles, developing countries can skip the harmful HFCs and jump to safer and cleaner alternatives.”

Mr Ireri added: “It’s been great to see countries across the board showing increasing flexibility to resolve some of the difficult issues. Specifically, progress has been made on agreeing an early freeze date for ending the manufacture of HFCs, a baseline from which to start the phasedown and ambitious national reduction targets.”

The meeting was attended by a number of heads of state and senior ministers including US Secretary of State John Kerry, who pointed out that it was steps such as tackling HFCs that were crucial if the Paris Agreement was to be realised.

It is hoped the work completed in Vienna will bear fruit at a meeting of the Montreal Protocol signatory countries in Kigali, Rwanda, this October, where the phasedown amendment will be passed.

Ends

Notes:

1. Christian Aid works in some of the world's poorest communities in around 40 countries at any one time. We act where there is great need, regardless of religion, helping people to live a full life, free from poverty. We provide urgent, practical and effective assistance in tackling the root causes of poverty as well as its effects.

2. Christian Aid’s core belief is that the world can and must be changed so that poverty is ended:  this is what we stand for. Everything we do is about ending poverty and injustice: swiftly, effectively, sustainably. Our strategy document Partnership for Change (http://www.christianaid.org.uk/images/partnership-for-change-summary.pdf) explains how we set about this task.

3. Christian Aid is a member of the ACT Alliance, a global coalition of more than 130 churches and church-related organisations that work together in humanitarian assistance, advocacy and development.  Further details athttp://actalliance.org

4. Follow Christian Aid's newswire on Twitter: http://twitter.com/caid_newswire

5. For more information about the work of Christian Aid visit http://www.christianaid.org.uk

 

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