The expert panels of the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, which provide the foundation for negotiations, previewed their 2022 quadrennial assessment reports, providing insights into future work and highlighting potential connections to issue areas including food security, plastic pollution, and ecosystem health. Delegates also adopted the terms of reference for the study on the replenishment of the Multilateral Fund (MLF) for 2024-2026.

This decision will allow the Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) to establish a Replenishment Task Force and begin laying the groundwork for replenishment negotiations, notes the Earth Negotiations Bulletin (ENB) in its summary report of the 34th Meeting of the Parties (MOP 34) to the Montreal Protocol.

Among other decisions adopted by the MOP are those on:

• illegal import of certain refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pump products and equipment;
• identification of gaps in the global coverage of atmospheric monitoring of controlled substances and options for enhancing such monitoring;
• collecting data to understand potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on hydrofluorocarbon consumption in developing countries;
• strengthening Montreal Protocol institutions, including for combating illegal trade;
• ongoing emissions of carbon tetrachloride (CTC); and
• enabling enhanced access and facilitating the transition to energy-efficient and low- or zero-global-warming-potential (GWP) technologies.

MOP 34 convened immediately prior to the Sharm el-Sheikh Climate Change Conference and days after the launch of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Emissions Gap Report, which warns that “the international community is falling far short” of the goals set by the 2015 Paris Agreement on Climate Change, “with no credible pathway to 1.5°C in place.”

In this context, the ENB analysis of the meeting notes, “many delegates highlighted two lesser-known achievements of the Montreal Protocol: the 0.5-1°C warming by mid-century already avoided thanks to its long-term implementation, and the additional benefits promised by implementation of the 2016 Kigali Amendment on hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), which are powerful greenhouse gases” (GHGs).

Just as with climate, ENB writes, the Protocol can offer co-benefits in other issue areas, including agriculture and food security, biodiversity, non-chemical insecticides and herbicides, renewable energy, plastic pollution, and human health. At MOP 34, some parties supported building on these contributions to sustainable development outcomes by expanding some areas of the Protocol’s work. Others, however, were hesitant to take on what they described as “tangential” concerns.

MOP 34 convened from 31 October to 4 November 2022 in Montreal, Canada. [ENB Coverage of Montreal Protocol MOP 34]