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September 22, 2022

Senate Votes to Phase Out Use of Refrigerants That Contribute to Climate Crisis
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The U.S. Senate has ratified an amendment to an international treaty
that seeks to phase out the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs,
chemicals commonly used in refrigerators and air conditioners that
contribute to the climate emergency. HFCs emerged as a popular
substitute to fluorocarbons, which are largely banned under the Montreal
Protocol, a 1987 treaty to end the use of chemicals that deplete the
Earth's protective ozone layer. But HFCs are extremely potent greenhouse
gases, trapping heat in the atmosphere about a thousand times more
effectively than carbon dioxide. On Thursday, 69 senators voted to amend
the Montreal Protocol to phase out the use of HFCs. Senate Democratic
Majority Leader Chuck Schumer celebrated the move.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer: "Experts say that phasing out our use of
HFCs will help prevent up to half a degree Celsius of warming by the end
of the century. … Ratifying the Kigali Amendment, along with passing the
Inflation Reduction Act, is the strongest one-two punch against climate
change any Congress has ever undertaken."



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