WASHINGTON—The Senate voted Wednesday to approve an international climate treaty for the first time in 30 years, in a rare bipartisan move to phase out the use of global-warming industrial chemicals commonly found in refrigerators and air conditioners. I agreed to the agreement.
By a vote of 69 to 27, including 21 Republican votes in favor of The United States joined the 2016 Kigali Amendment. 137 countries Agreed to significantly reduce the production and use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The chemical is a powerful greenhouse gas, and he of carbon dioxide warms the earth with a heat trap strength 1,000 times greater.
Majority leader Senator Chuck Schumer of New York called the ratification “a huge step forward in fighting global warming.” He predicted that the vote could count as one of the most important bipartisan achievements in this Congress.
“The ratification of the Kigali Amendment, along with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, is the strongest one-two punch against climate change ever taken by Congress,” Schumer said, referring to the country’s first major climate change law passed last month. , and is investing $370 billion in expanding wind, solar energy and electric vehicles.
Scientists estimate that the successful implementation of the Kigali Accord could prevent warming by 0.5 degrees Celsius (about 1 degree Fahrenheit) by the end of the century. At this stage of rapid global warming, a difference of 1 degree makes a difference.
The average global temperature has increased by 1.1 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial times. Scientists say that above 1.5 degrees Celsius, the potential for catastrophic climate impacts increases significantly.
On a practical level, Congress and the Biden administration have already enacted policies to cut U.S. hydrofluorocarbon production and imports by 85% over the next 15 years, and as industry looks to alternatives, Voting in the United States has changed little. chemicals.
But the ratification of the treaty, which the United States helped secure late in the Obama administration, carries symbolic weight and is gaining momentum at a time when action on climate change is on the rise in Washington.
“This treaty shows that solving climate change is not hopeless,” said Darwood Zarke, director of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, a Washington-based research and advocacy organization. said.
The Biden Administration’s Environmental Agenda
- Inflation control law: Investing billions in climate and energy programs, this new law represents America’s largest investment in combating climate change.
- Climate team changes: John Podesta, who headed President Obama’s White House on climate strategy, will oversee the $370 billion clean energy fund as President Biden’s top climate adviser, Gina McCarthy, prepares to step down.
- Executive Action: Following the signing of the climate bill, Mr. Biden plans a series of steps to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Zaerke said relatively narrow sectors of the economy, in this case approaches to curbing greenhouse gases through refrigeration and air conditioning, could serve as a template for future agreements. “It shows a way forward by getting out of the climate problem,” he said.
The vote came on the day President Biden told the United Nations General Assembly that the United States will continue to push for action on climate change and reverse a four-year stagnation under President Donald J. Trump. Under Trump, the United States became the only country to withdraw from the 2105 Paris Agreement. The Paris Agreement is a global agreement aimed at reducing pollution from fossil fuels that contribute to global warming.
“Since the day I took office, we have led a bold climate agenda,” Biden told Congress in New York, rejoining the Paris Agreement and contributing 65% of global GDP last year. Curb global average temperature rise, citing brokered commitments among nations.
The Senate’s ratification of the Kigali Accords after last month’s passage of the Inflation Cuts Act is another example of easing world leaders’ skepticism about whether the United States can deliver on its promises on climate change. became.
The Kigali Accord was an amendment to the Montreal Protocol, a landmark 1987 treaty aimed at restoring the ozone layer by banning ozone-thinning refrigerants called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). Ozone is the part of the Earth’s atmosphere that absorbs harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun.
Chemical companies developed HFCs in response to the 1987 agreement. HFCs do not harm the ozone layer, but have been found to be a significant contributor to global warming. More than a dozen states have banned or restricted HFCs.
The reduction of HFCs has become an extraordinary climate policy to gain support from both the environmental community and industry and industry groups that normally oppose climate action. They include the National Manufacturers Association, the American Chemistry Council, and the American Chamber of Commerce.
Many American manufacturers had a business incentive to support the amendment. Under the agreement, countries that do not ratify the amendments will have limited access to the expanding international market from 2033.
Some Republicans in chemical-producing states supported the Kigali Accord.
Louisiana Republican Senator John Kennedy, along with Delaware Democratic Senator Tom Carper, who heads the Senate Environment Committee, sought approval of the deal.
“Ratification of the Kigali Amendment will further open global markets for U.S.-made products and enable the federal government to further prevent illegal Chinese dumping of HFCs in the U.S. that harm U.S. businesses. ‘, the senator wrote in a statement this year.
In 2020, Congress passed the American Innovation Manufacturing Act. This will direct the Environmental Protection Agency to set new regulations on HFCs. The rule will begin to take effect this year, and he will cut hydrofluorocarbon production and imports in the US by more than 85%. next 15 years.
About 15% of HFCs are still allowed because they have important uses for which no replacement exists yet. Under the Kigali Amendment, developed countries such as the United States and countries of the European Union will reduce HFC production and consumption to around 15% of 2012 levels by 2036.
Many other countries in the world, including China, Brazil and all of Africa, will freeze their HFC use by 2024 and reduce them to 20% of 2021 levels by 2045.
The Senate has approved a Republican amendment to classify China as a developed country. This puts China on the same timetable for her HFC phase-out as other developed countries, eroding its competitive advantage over American manufacturers. It directs the Secretary of State to propose that change at a future meeting of the signatories to the Montreal Protocol.
Some of the world’s hottest countries, including Bahrain, India, Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have announced plans to freeze their HFC use by 2028 and reduce their use to around 15% of 2025 levels by 2047. , with the most generous schedule.
Republicans who opposed the deal argued that these provisions created an uneven playing field for American companies.
Senator John Barraso of Wyoming, the Republican leader on the Senate Energy Committee, voted against ratification in support of a 2020 law requiring new domestic HFC regulations. “There is no excuse for senators to give China rations at the expense of American taxpayers and hardworking American families,” he said in his pre-vote speech on the Senate floor.
Americans for Prosperity, the political action committee founded by the billionaire Koch brothers, wrote to lawmakers last week saying that ratifying the Kigali Amendment would be a “statement of U.S. sovereignty over environmental regulation” to the United Nations. Abandoned,” he said. The group also claimed to raise prices for air conditioners, refrigerators and industrial cooling equipment for American consumers.
But Francis Dietz, spokesman for the Air Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Association, an industry group, disputed this. He said the phasing out of HFCs is happening regardless of what the Senate does about ratifying the formal treaty.
“We’ve been preparing for this for over a decade,” he said, adding, “If you’re a consumer, this won’t make a difference for you.”
Emily Cochrane contributed to the report.