The Kigali Amendment is an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, adopted on 15 October 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda, at the 28th Meeting of the Parties. It entered into force on 1 January 2019 after meeting the threshold of 20 instruments of ratification.
Unlike the original Montreal Protocol, which targeted ozone-depleting substances such as CFCs and HCFCs, the Kigali Amendment addresses hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). HFCs do not deplete the ozone layer but are powerful greenhouse gases, with global warming potentials hundreds to thousands of times that of CO₂. They proliferated precisely because they were adopted as substitutes for ozone-depleting refrigerants under earlier Montreal Protocol commitments.
The amendment establishes a phasedown (not a phaseout) on differentiated timetables grouped into three tracks:
- Developed countries (e.g., United States, EU, Japan) begin reductions in 2019, reaching an 85% cut from baseline by 2036.
- Group 1 developing countries (most of the Global South, including China and Brazil) freeze consumption in 2024 and reach an 80% cut by 2045.
- Group 2 developing countries (India, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Gulf states with high ambient temperatures) freeze in 2028 and reach an 85% cut by 2047.
The Multilateral Fund, established under the Montreal Protocol, finances compliance costs for developing-country parties.
The Kigali Amendment is frequently cited as a model of differentiated environmental cooperation because it borrows the Montreal Protocol's compliance architecture — trade restrictions with non-parties, mandatory reporting, and the Multilateral Fund — rather than relying on the looser pledge-and-review model of the Paris Agreement. UNEP and IEA analyses have estimated it could avoid up to roughly 0.4°C of warming by 2100 if fully implemented, alongside energy-efficiency gains in cooling equipment. The United States ratified the amendment in September 2022 with bipartisan Senate support, a notable departure from its handling of other climate instruments.
Example
In September 2022, the United States Senate ratified the Kigali Amendment by a 69–27 vote, committing the U.S. to phase down HFC production and consumption by 85% by 2036.
Frequently asked questions
It uses legally binding, scheduled phasedown targets enforced through trade measures and a dedicated funding mechanism, rather than the Paris Agreement's nationally determined contributions.
Keep learning