The Kigali Agreement is a legally binding international treaty adopted in Rwanda during 2016 to reduce hydrofluorocarbon emissions. It functions as an amendment to the Montreal Protocol to address climate change impacts from these gases.
A single molecule of hydrofluorocarbons has a global warming potential between twelve and fourteen thousand eight hundred times that of carbon dioxide over one hundred years. Eliminating these emissions could prevent half a degree Celsius of warming by the end of the century.
Old industrialized countries must cut usage by forty-five percent by 2024 according to Article 5 standards. These nations also face an eighty-five percent reduction target by 2036 compared to levels from 2011 through 2013.
Germany approved the document on the 2nd of May 2019 while Japan accepted the treaty on the 23rd of January 2019. The European Union ratified the amendment on the 28th of December 2018 and Canada followed suit on the 8th of June 2020.
One hundred seventy-one states and the European Union eventually ratified this amendment to strengthen environmental protections. Many countries completed their legal acceptance processes between 2017 and 2024 with numerous states finalizing participation status by late 2024.