The Senate voted on a bipartisan basis Wednesday to approve the Kigali Amendment, a global climate deal that calls for the phasedown of potent greenhouse gas refrigerants known as hydrofluorocarbons.
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The Biden administration submitted the amendment to the Senate last year for ratification. Since it is a treaty vote, it had to clear the chamber by a two-thirds majority to become law. The vote was 69 to 27.
The Kigali Amendment has earned support from many Republicans.
A group of Republicans lobbied former President Donald Trump to support the HFC agreement and asked him to send the deal to the Senate for ratification, but he never did.
Congress in 2020 passed a bipartisan measure calling for an 85% reduction in domestic HFCs by 2035, which was finalized by the Environmental Protection Agency last September. Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) co-sponsored that effort, along with Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Tom Carper (D-DE).
“It’s long past time that we join the rest of the international community in addressing HFCs and taking the kind of bold, transformational climate action that this moment demands,” Carper told the Washington Examiner of passing the Kigali Amendment late last year.
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The Kigali Amendment has also earned support from appliance manufacturers, chemical companies, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — in part because business groups have invested a combined total of billions of dollars to research a replacement coolant for HFCs.
“HFCs are a leading contributor to global warming, and adoption of the amendment is a great opportunity to show American climate leadership,” Marty Durbin, the senior vice president of policy at the Chamber, said in a statement.
“Adopting the amendment will safeguard the competitiveness of American manufacturers and expand economic opportunities for U.S. businesses by allowing them to capture a larger share of global markets for heating and cooling,” Durbin added. “This action also serves as an example of how durable and meaningful climate policy should be made — with strong bipartisan support that is a win for the economy and environment.”
Other Republicans voted not to ratify the amendment, however, due to the fact that the treaty lists China as a developing nation, meaning it will face less strict rules.
Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming, the top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the designation would give China an extra decade to produce HFCs — putting the United States at what he said was a “competitive disadvantage” to Beijing for 10 additional years.
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A 2018 study conducted by the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy found that ratifying the Kigali deal could create 33,000 U.S. manufacturing jobs.
“I’m very excited to finally bring [Kigali] to the floor,” Carper told reporters Monday. “I think we’ll get broad bipartisan support. The business community has been, almost as one, urging us to bring this up because of the great potential for job creation and economic activity.”
