The U.S. ratifies treaty to phase down HFCs, gases trapping 1,000x more heat than CO2

https://www.npr.org/2022/09/20/ [login to see] /hydrofluorocarbons-banned-us
Nearly six years after the United States helped negotiate it, the Senate has ratified a global climate treaty that would formally phase down the use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, industrial chemicals commonly found in air conditioners and refrigerators, insulating foams and pharmaceutical inhalers.

The Kigali Amendment, an addition to the Montreal Protocol climate treaty, aims to drastically reduce the global use of the compounds.

"This measure will go a long way to lowering global temperatures while also creating tens of thousands of American jobs," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said before Wednesday's vote, which passed 69-27.

HFCs were widely adopted in the 1980s and 1990s to replace another family of chemicals, chlorofluorocarbon, or CFCs, which damage the Earth's ozone layer. But after the switch, HFCs emerged as some of the most potent greenhouse gases, hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide.

Successfully phasing out HFCs around the globe could reduce warming by up to 0.5 degrees Celsius (or about 1 degree Fahrenheit) by the end of the century, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. As the world struggles to limit warming this century to 1.5 degrees Celsius to try to avoid several catastrophic tipping points, half a degree can make a major difference, said scientists.