Before the landmark 26th Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, U.K., took place in November last year, the European Parliament (EP) adopted a motion for a resolution calling for the accelerated phase out of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs.
The text adopted welcomes “the intention of the US Biden Administration and President Xi Jinping of China to ratify the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.” (China ratified the amendment in June 2021, whereas the U.S.’s ratification is still in progress.) Those countries’ intentions, with the upcoming revision of the EU F-gas Regulation, “represents a unique opportunity to bring the world closer to meeting the objectives of the Paris Agreement”.
The European Parliament urged the European Commission to present an “ambitious revision of the EU F-gas Regulation,” calling for an accelerated phase out of hydrofluorocarbons (HFC).
Notably the European Parliament supports the phase out rather than phase down of HFCs, in contrast with the language usually adopted in the framework of the Kigali Amendment.
EP motions are not legally binding and are meant to inform other EU institutions and member states, and in this case other attendees of COP26, of the legislature’s stance on topics of concerns for the European Union. This motion is likely to play a key role in shaping the EP position during the negotiations with the European Commission and the Council of the EU to develop the regulation.
The text was originally proposed by MEPs from six of the eight party groups within the EP: the European People’s Party (EPP), the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Renew Europe (RE), the Greens/European Free Alliance (Greens/EFA), Identity and Democracy (ID) and Left in the European Parliament (GUE-NGL).
The European Commission presented the proposal for the revision of the EU F-gas Regulation in April 2022 with a substantial curb of the allowed amount of HFCs available on the market among its measures.
The CCC members welcome the further ambition showcased in the proposal yet believe additional action can be taken to harvest all the benefits this climate-related legislation can yield. To read our position following the release of the EU f-gas proposal, click here.
