News-Sep 2013
- India has decided not to give in to U.S. pressure to agree to discussions on phasing out refrigerant gases under the Montreal Protocol.
- To do so, the Indian government has agreed to set up a Indo-U.S. working group on climate change, which will discuss the issue of refrigerant gases, besides other areas of collaboration and discussions. The joint working group will be headed by Union Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan on the Indian side, while Todd Stern, Special Envoy on Climate Change, will lead the U.S. team.
- Since 2009, India has stood firm that the HFCs — used for refrigeration — should be dealt with like all other greenhouse gases under the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. They have contested that the Montreal Protocol is only meant to address ozone-depleting substances and argued that the developed world is keen on pushing costly and not fully tested proprietary technologies to fast growing economies through this route.
- But the Indian position was weakened when New Delhi signed the recent G20 communiqué that welcomed bringing mitigation of HFC emissions under the Montreal Protocol.
