Argentina Ratifies Kigali Amendment

The Republic of Argentina ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on November 22, 2019, becoming the 88th country out of 197 plus the European Union (EU) to commit to the global HFC phase-down plan.

Argentina is listed as an Article 5-Group 1 country under the Kigali Amendment, meaning that it is a developing country that has committed to phase down the use and production of HFCs by 80% by 2045.

Argentina is the 57th out of 148 developing countries to ratify the amendment, and the sixth South American nation, with Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay already having done so. (For a list of all countries in addition to Argentina that have ratified the amendment, click here.)

The Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol was enacted by 197 countries (plus the EU) on October 15, 2016. It entered into force on January 1, 2019.  When fully implemented, the amendment is expected to avoid the creation of 80Gt (billion metric tons) of CO₂e emissions by 2050, according to United Nations estimates. In addition, it is projected to reduce the rise in global temperatures by up to 0.4°C (0.72°F).

Efficiency project

With the aid of the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program (K-CEP), Argentina has been running a project since 2018 to embed efficient clean cooling into the country’s domestic refrigeration sector primarily.

The domestic and commercial refrigeration market in Argentina is dominated by local manufacturers, with very little export, according to a K-CEP report. The market has six “medium”-sized enterprises in this sector, and a number of very small manufacturers, the report says. Three of the six medium-sized manufacturers are participating in the K-CEP project: Briket S.A., Mabe-Kronen, and Talleres Metalurgicos Bambi.

The project includes four main components in its aim to develop more energy-efficient appliances:

• R&D support.
• Strategy development and training.
• Identifying barriers and business models.
• Developing minimum energy performance standards (MEPS) and labeling.

K-CEP was launched in April 2017 as a philanthropic initiative aiming to increase the energy efficiency of cooling in support of efforts to phase down F-gases.

For an in-depth look at the Kigali Amendment, see “Kigali: Is it enough?” Accelerate Magazine, November-December 2019.