India rejects US proposal on phasing out refrigerant coolants

India has rejected the US offer to provide clean technologies for low carbon growth only if the Modi government agreed to phase out existing refrigerant coolants called Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which cause global warming.

Updated on: Sep 24, 2014, 24:18:49 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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India has rejected the US offer to provide clean technologies for low carbon growth only if the Modi government agreed to phase out existing refrigerant coolants called Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) which cause global warming.

The US wanted India to agree to the proposal before PM Narendra Modi’s US visit but India refused the deal.

The last fortnight or so had witnessed hectic parleys between Indian and US officials to break the deadlock but India remained firm on its stand. A senior government functionary told HT the two issues cannot be linked.

“If the US wants India to adopt renewables at a faster rate it should provide technical knowhow on clean technologies without any riders. It cannot ask us to phase out the HFCs as a condition to get clean technologies. We have made our position clear, the US has to take a final call,” he added.

India believes that HFCs should be discussed under the climate convention that provides for mandatory emission cuts only for rich nations and not developing countries.

The US wants India to discuss future of refrigerant coolants under the Montreal Protocol for ozone depleting substances that mandates financial incentives to developing countries to phase out environmentally harmful chemicals.

Before leaving for US, environment minister Prakash Javadekar had clearly said, “I will like to reiterate that the HFCs should be discussed in climate negotiations as it causes global warming and does not lead to depletion of ozone.”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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