Rwanda’s natural resources minister Vincent Biruta has called upon the entire world to pass an ambitious amendment to the Montreal Protocol to ensure the protection of the ozone layer.
The East African country is hosting the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, which aims to reduce dangerous greenhouse gases ‘hydro fluorocarbons’.
More than 1,000 international leaders, environmental conservationists and ozone preservation and low carbon development experts are expected to attend the Meeting at the Kigali Convention Centre.
“We look forward to welcoming all Parties to the Montreal Protocol to Rwanda in the spirit of international cooperation. We are pleased to see so many countries supporting an ambitious amendment and are confident that it will be passed. Rwanda stands ready to work with all Parties to find common ground and make the amendment a reality,” Biruta said.
The amendment if passed, the protocol could avoid 100 billion tons of carbon emissions by 2050 and thus avoid 0.5°C warming by 20100 nearly 10% of the mitigation needed to stay below to 2°C level established as the limit under Paris agreement with more ambitious target of 1.5°C limit.
Experts warn that the Hydro-fluorocarbons used in refrigirants and air conditioners can be up to 4,000 times more potent than carbon dioxide.
They say that the use of air conditioning equipment may grow to 2.5 billion air conditioners by 2050, therefore, improving the energy efficiency of such appliances is important, especially for the protection of the ozone layer.
Rwanda has been hailed for being on track towards eliminating ozone-depleting gases, having reduced HFCs from 68 tonnes to 47 tonnes since the launching of the initiative.
