Due to its overwhelming accomplishments, the Montreal Protocol is universally recognised as the most successful global multilateral environment instrument.
According to Edison Alleyne, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Environment and Drainage, the acceptance of this Protocol has allowed for agreement on the Dubai Pathway for the management of Hydro-fluorocarbons (HFCs) and resulted in the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, decided at the 28th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol, just two months ago.
This Amendment, he explained, will add 18 hydro-fluorocarbons to the list of 96 chemicals already controlled by the Montreal Protocol.
“As you are aware, through non-ozone depleting, HFCs are potent greenhouse gases (GHGs) with high global warming potentials. Because of this, in a world trying to resolve an approach to the management of global climate change, the Kigali Amendment is just as significant as the Paris Agreement decided at the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) last year (2015),” Alleyne stated recently, as he addressed participants at the official opening ceremony for the Caribbean Ozone Officers’ Network Meeting at the Radisson Aquatica Hotel.
“I understand that treatment of HFC management under the Montreal Protocol was not without its challenges. As a consequence, I am heartened by the fact that the countries of the world were able to unite and agree to work together for the benefit of our environment and the protection of vulnerable states,” he said.
He meanwhile noted that in relation to the Protocol, Barbados will be commencing the process of dialogue early in the New Year, to facilitate its ratification and also to adjust our existing regulatory tools to reflect coverage of the new HFC obligations. This would assist in our ability to account for the HFC contribution to our greenhouse gas emission levels, the pursuit of the targets documented in our “Nationally Determined Contribution Report” communicated to the UNFCCC as well as our Green Economy and Sustainable Development aspirations, he said. (RSM)
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