The treaty – known as the Kigali Amendment to the 1987 Montreal Protocol – obliges countries to phase out the use of the powerful hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide in accelerating climate change. The United States became the 137th country to ratify the amendment — and negotiators said the move would encourage other nations to follow suit. The previous Montreal Protocol limited the production of ozone-depleting substances. US climate envoy John F. Kerry, who was in the Rwandan capital of Kigali when the amendment was negotiated, said the Senate vote “was a decade in the making and a profound climate victory and the American economy”. The treaty, which had to win the support of at least two-thirds of the Senate, gathered an unusual coalition of supporters, including the US Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers as well as the Natural Resources Defense Council. In a statement, Kerry said that “businesses supported it because it drives American exports. Climate advocates backed it because it would avoid up to half a degree of global warming by the end of the century. and world leaders supported it because it ensures strong international cooperation.” Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) said the ratification of the Kigali Amendment and passage of the Inflation Reduction Act was “the strongest one-two punch against climate change that has ever been delivered the Congress.” He said the treaty would “reduce global temperatures by about half a degree Celsius by the end of this century, which has been little discussed with a very significant impact.” This reduction is equal to about 1 degree Fahrenheit. He called it “a win-win in our fight against climate change.” Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said the ratification shows President Biden’s “continued leadership on climate and his appreciation of the need for speed to slow near-term warming, avoid climate tipping points, and slow of self-reinforcing comments.” Support for ratification has been growing in recent years. The Senate, with Sen. John Neely Kennedy (R-La.) as lead sponsor, had during the 2020 session lame-duck passed the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, which authorized the Environmental Protection Agency to implement most of the regulations that would be required under validation. Kennedy’s state is home to the Mexichem Fluor and Honeywell plants that make the chemicals. Most American industrial air conditioner manufacturers had already pushed for the adoption of the treaty in the name of American jobs and competitiveness. “The Senate signals that Kigali counts for the jobs it will create. for global competitive advantage it creates; the additional exports that will result and counts for US technological superiority,” Stephen Yurek, president of the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute, said in a statement. He said U.S. manufacturers already supply 75 percent of the world’s air conditioning equipment and that global demand is “exploding.” However, many senators opposed the action. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said the domestic legislation was sufficient. “We did it here, we did it right. We don’t need to get involved in another United Nations treaty,” he said. Barrasso also complained that “this treaty is particularly bad because it doubles down on the practice of treating China as a developing country.” Like all other developing countries, under the treaty, China gets a grace period before it has to reduce HFCs. Americans for Prosperity, backed by the Koch family, sent a letter to lawmakers urging a no vote on the Kigali amendment, warning that the vote could be included in the organization’s annual legislative scoreboard. The letter said the treaty “would impose costly restrictions, serving as a consumer tax on air conditioning and refrigeration, on the American people and give an unfair advantage to China and other industrial competitors of the United States.” Other Republicans have opposed the treaty. Three senators — James M. Inhofe (Okla.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Rand Paul (Ky.) — joined Barrasso in holding up the Kigali amendment in an effort to block the vote, according to two people who spoke at the Mt. of anonymity because the gaps were not public. But Sen. Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), who worked with Kennedy and whose state is the lowest in the nation, said that “it’s not every day you have a full court from the business community and accompanied by a press release from the environmental community’. Dan Lashof, director of the World Resources Institute, said U.S. manufacturers have been “innovators, so this just strengthens the U.S. role in driving solutions and will strengthen the U.S. economy, as well as a big win for the climate.” Maxine Joselow contributed to this report. Sign up for the latest news on climate change, energy and the environment, delivered every Thursday
