Q. Consider the following statements regarding Kigali Amendment-
- It is an amendment in Montreal protocol 1989.
- Recently United States, China and India has ratified the amendment.
- Montreal protocol is related to maintaining the temperature of the earth.
Which of the above statement / s is / are not true?
a) Only 1
b) Only 1 & 2
c) Only 3
d) All statements are correct.
ANSWER:- c)
RELATED FACTS:-
- Following similar decisions by the United States and China in the past few months, India on 18TH August, 2021 decided to ratify a key amendment to the 1989 ozone-saving Montreal Protocol negotiated five years ago.
- The Kigali Amendment, named after the Rwadan capital where it was negotiated, enables the phase-out of hydroflurocarbons, a set of chemicals notorious for their capacity to warm the planet.
- The 2016 amendment was seen as one of the most important breakthroughs in the global efforts to fight climate change, because the HFCs, a set of 19 gases used extensively in the air-conditioning and refrigerant industry, are known to be hundreds, even thousands, of times more potent than carbon dioxide in their ability to cause global warming.
- It is estimated that a complete phase-out of HFCs by 2050 would prevent about 0.5 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures by the end of this century.
- This important instrument, therefore, is crucial to achieving the target of restraining the increase in global temperatures to 2 degree Celsius from pre-industrial times.
- As pointed out by a recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the average temperatures of the planet has already risen by about 1.1 degree Celsius.
- The decision to ratify the amendment was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet on Wednesday.
- It comes close on the heels of similar decisions by the United States and China, the world’s largest producers and consumers of HFCs.
- According to a recent factsheet issued by Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), a US-based environmental organisation, and The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), 122 countries had ratified the Kigali Amendment by the end of July.
By – ABHISHEK KUMAR