Press Release, 13 July 2017 – The Executive Secretary of the Ozone Secretariat announced yesterday that the United Nations is enlisting the help of Marvel Comics in telling the story of Ozone Heroes, building on the fascination of the world on action and heroism. From the Paris Agreement to the Kigali Amendment, environmental and climate advocacies have a lot of issues that need to be addressed urgently.
The Asia Climate Change Consortium (ACCC), a learning and an advocacy group of climate change organizations and networks in Asia aiming to arm the advocacy with robust science and policy recommendations and make the Asian voice better heard in international negotiations, appeals to nations to link their Paris Agreement targets with the new commitments under the Kigali Amendment which calls on the phasedown of hydroflorocarbons (HFCs), a short-lived greenhouse gas with a global warming potential higher than carbon. We believe that the two legally binding treaties should work together to build a sustainable and prosperous future for the world.
Given the inevitability of HFCs (hydroflourocarbons) levels growing alongside carbon, nations and climate change advocates must lend their attention to the fact that fast action on controlling HFCs can help the world avoid up to 0.5 degrees C of global warming, a huge chunk of the Paris Climate Agreement’s long term temperature stabilization goal. In the course of HFCs phase down, safety issues especially flammability of HFCs replacement need to be taken as the core concern.
Developed countries must also take the lead in both Paris and Kigali efforts while supporting the activities of Article 5 countries— where most developing countries belong. However, developing countries must take note of projections identifying them as the culprit of HFCs growth from 36% to a whopping 75% in 2020.
ACCC agrees with the Ozone secretariat that there are tangible solutions to such intangible problems like ozone depletion and climate change, and that we must match our level of ambition with scaled-up commitments if we want to have a chance at protecting humanity.
Only four countries have ratified the Kigali Amendment as of this writing. ACCC encourages countries to ratify the Kigali Amendment, amend their domestic laws and legislations in the attempt to phase down HFCs, and update their Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to include Kigali targets as near-term mitigation will be the co-benefit of HFCs phase down. ACCC also supports the work of the Montreal Protocol’s Scientific Assessment Panel in updating the global warming potential (GWP) values of substances and hopes that research on non-ODS and low-GWP alternatives be reviewed and made available to the public to guide consumers and stakeholders.#
Contact: ACCC Secretariat is acccsec2019@gmail.com.
c/o Rice Watch Action Network