Jakarta – The Indonesian government will implement the Kigali Amendment starting in March, according to the Ministry of Environment and Forestry (KLHK), today. Indonesia ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol regarding efforts to reduce consumption of hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs and increase energy efficiency.
The Kigali Amendment will be put into effect by the government starting March 14, 2023, or ninety days after receipt of the instrument of ratification by the United Nations (UN) depository on December 14, 2022.
“This step proves the government’s commitment to continuing to protect the ozone layer and efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” said the Director General of Climate Change Control at the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Laksmi Dhewanthi in a written statement.
HFC compounds can emit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions tens to thousands of times stronger than carbon dioxide. According to Dhewanthi, controlling HFC consumption will help reduce the potential for global warming and prevent the earth’s temperature from rising to 0.4 degrees Celsius.
She said that the value of the global warming potential (GWP) of various types of HFCs ranged from 53 to 14,800 carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2). This value is much greater than the GWP value of CO2 of one. For example, if an HFC has a GWP of 100, then 2 tonnes of that gas is equivalent to 200 tonnes of CO2. Furthermore, Dhewanthi said, Indonesia has also ratified the Vienna Convention, the Montreal Protocol, and all of its amendments since 1992.
“That means, the government is obliged to eliminate the use of ozone-depleting substances according to schedule, such as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs). Most recently, on January 1, 2022, the government has removed the consumption of HCFC-141b which is widely used in the foam industry,” he added.
Director of Climate Change Mitigation of the Ministry of Environment and Forestry, Emma Rachmawati, added that the schedule for reducing HFC consumption would begin with a freeze (returning consumption to baseline) in 2024. The baseline estimate is 18.85 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent. The gradual reduction in consumption starts with 10 percent in 2029, 30 percent in 2035, 50 percent in 2040, and 80 percent in 2045.
The HFC compounds regulated in the Kigali Amendment include both single compounds and mixtures. HFC is an alternative material to replace HCFC and CFC. Meanwhile, Indonesia does not produce HFCs, so all of them are imported.
Based on KLHK records, the use of HFCs during the 2015-2019 period, there were five types of compounds that were most imported, namely HFC-134a with a GWP of 1,430, HFC-32 with a GWP of 675, R-410A with a GWP of 2,087.5, R-404A with a GWP 3,921.6, and R407C with a GWP of 1,773.85. These compounds are widely used in the refrigeration and air conditioning industries such as refrigerators and air conditioners (AC), foam materials, aerosols, halons in fire extinguishers, fumigants, and solvents. (Hartatik)
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