The National Environment Commission Secretariat with the technical support from the United Nations Environment Programme aims to phase-down the production and consumption of Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) beginning 2024. HFCs are frequently used for cooling and refrigeration. They are powerful greenhouse gases that have significant global warming potentials.
With the ratification of the Kigali Amendment on September 27 this year, Bhutan has reached another important milestone in the environment protection and climate mitigation. The ratification commits countries to reduce the consumption of climate pollutant by 85 per cent starting from January 2024 to 2040.
“It is estimated that by reducing the use of HFCs, by over 80 per cent in the next thirty years as required by the Kigali Amendment we can prevent global warming by up to 0.4 degree Celsius by the end of this century,” said Pema Gyamtsho (PhD), the Opposition Leader.
It is also estimated to cut up to 80 billion tons of carbon dioxide emission which is equivalent to carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. The Kigali Amendment came into force in January 2019, following the ratification by an overwhelming number of 65 countries, instead of the required 20 countries.
“The substance that we will be controlled under the recent amendment of the Kigali Amendment that was ratified by Bhutan is concerned about the greenhouse gases. It is Hydrofluorocarbons which is one of the six substances that are also controlled by the Paris Agreement. So, now with the amendment under the Montreal Protocol, has a responsibility to reduce the substances in the country,” said Liazzat Rabbiosi, the Program Officer for Ozone Action at the United Nations Environment Programme.
In preparation for Bhutan’s implementation of the Kigali Amendment, the National Environment Commission Secretariat and United Nations Environment Programme are currently developing a readiness assessment study.
“So we are almost at the final stages and this is one of the final validation workshops. After this workshop, we will actually send the revised version of the study to all the relevant stakeholders to seek their feedback on what we found is actually accurate and relevant. And also if they agree we will get the recommendations,” she added.
Introducing the Kigali Amendment to various relevant stakeholders, the participants also discussed the implementation strategies, policy gaps, market assessment, consumption requirements and Bhutan’s phase-down schedules in details. The commission will now train customs and enforcement officers on control of refrigerant substances soon.
Passang Dorji
