KIGALI (Rwanda): Talks on a global pact to cut greenhouse gases used in refrigerators and air conditioners are making progress, said the United States Secretary of State John Kerry on Friday, raising hopes for a breakthrough against climate change.

Mr Kerry consulted officials from China, India and Pakistan on the sidelines of a meeting in Rwanda that aims to strike a deal among 150 nations on ways to phase down factory-made hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) gases.

“Everyone in this room is aware of how serious the stakes are,” Mr Kerry told delegates assembled for a plenary session. “The window of time that we have to prevent the worst impacts from happening is in fact narrowing and closing fast,’’ he said.

Earlier, Mr Kerry told reporters “we’re making progress” after talks with China’s Deputy Minister for Environ­mental Protection Zhai Qing and Indian Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave.

“I am confident that at the end of the conference we are going to see an agreement,” said United Nations Environment Programme head Erik Solheim. Solheim called on all sides to show flexibility, adding that a quick reduction of HFCs could be a major contribution to slowing climate change, avoiding perhaps 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9 Fahrenheit) of a projected rise in average temperatures by 2100.

India, the world’s third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, is under pressure to speed up its plans for cutting HFCs. New Delhi had previously been pushing for a 2031 deadline, but now claimed that the peak could be set for between 2024 and 2026. The United States, European Union and African states are among those seeking a peak sooner, around 2020 to 2022.

“If we’re going to give this amendment the teeth it needs to prevent as much as a half-degree of warming, then we need to make sure we’re pushing for the most far-reaching amendment we can adopt,” Mr Kerry said.

Environmental groups have called for an ambitious agreement on cutting HFCs to limit the damage from the roughly 1.6 billion new air conditioning units expected to come on stream by 2050, reflecting increased demand from a rapidly expanding middle class in Asia, Latin America and Africa.

Use of HFCs, which can be 10,000 times more powerful than carbon dioxide as greenhouse gases, is already declining in many rich nations.

An amendment to the Montreal Protocol covering HFCs is to be agreed by consensus. Any amendment to the protocol will be legally binding.

Tricky issues

After a meeting with Mr Kerry, the head of the Pakistani delegation, Industries Minister Ghulam Murtaza Khan Jatoi, told reporters the teams still hoped to agree a deal on Friday, but they were still discussing a compromise target date for the phaseout to begin.

Clare Perry, of the Environmental Investigation Agency campaign group, said some “tricky issues” remained to be resolved, such as financing.

She said countries were under pressure because “no one wants to be the reason that the biggest climate win in 2016 didn’t happen”.

Developing countries like India, and other hot nations where HFC-using air conditioners are in high demand, are concerned about the high costs of the transition away from HFCs.

“There are issues of cost, there are issues of technology, and there are issues of finances. We would like to emphasise that any agreement will have to be flexible from all sides concerned. It can’t be flexible from one side and not from the other,’’ said Ajay Narayan of India’s environment and climate change ministry.

Last month, a group of developed countries and companies offered $80 million to help developing countries make the switch away from HFCs.

Published in Dawn, October 15th, 2016