India to oppose phasing out HFCs at UN Climate summit

Warsaw: India would strongly oppose the US and EU`s stand on the issue of phasing out refrigerant gas HFCs at the high-level ministerial talks at the UN Climate Change summit here, official sources said Wednesday.

"In view of the lack of safe, technologically viable, and economically feasible alternatives, the issue of Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) needs further examination and status-quo should be maintained for the present," Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said. The US and the European Union (EU) are preparing to take up the issue at the high-level ministerial segment of the COP 19 conference in Warsaw, the Polish capital. India is learnt to have expressed its reservation over the text of the draft prepared by the US and the EU. India has said that HFCs are greenhouse gases and not ozone depleting substances and hence not under the Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol is an international agreement designed to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of numerous substances believed to be responsible for depletion of ozone. India says that any move to shift HFCs to Montreal Protocol from United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will call for an amendment to Montreal Protocol and a decision by consensus under UNFCCC Convention.