International.
The last meeting of the Montreal Protocol considered agreeing on concrete measures for historic phase-out.
Countries around the world have taken what has been described as "critical steps" toward their goal of agreeing to a global phase-out of HFCs.
The parties to the Montreal Protocol meeting in Vienna have reached agreement on solutions to all the problems identified, the U.S. EPA said. These include "substantial simplification" of the range of initial proposals, an agreement to hold another meeting towards the end of this year (October), and calling on the United Nations Economic and Technology Assessment Group to investigate the different proposals, climate benefits and costs.
The U.S. delegation led by Secretary of State John Kerry said it succeeded in "laying the groundwork for the adoption of an ambitious HFC amendment at the 28th Meeting of the Parties in Kigali, Rwanda in October."
The EPA has underlined the importance of the phase-out decision saying: "This single step could prevent up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2100. Given that an HFC amendment is the only biggest step the world can take to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement to keep warming well below 2 degrees Celsius, the Administration will remain committed to working with all parties to complete these negotiations in Kigali."
