The Montreal Protocol is at a crossroads in its efforts to restore Earth's ozone layer in a manner that does not accelerate climate change.  In light of the rapidly escalating pace of global warming, controlling and eliminating the adverse and growing climate impacts associated with the phase-out of ozone depleting chemicals has become imperative.  EIA’s most recent atmospheric report covers the wide range of available near-term opportunities for preventing enormous greenhouse gas emissions through the Montreal Protocol and avoiding the current paralysis affecting international climate negotiations.

The HFC Imperative, a reportreleased July 10, 2009, details how the Montreal Protocol has been extremely successful in enabling the phase-out of ozone depleting substances (ODS). Yet as a result of these phase-outs, hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) have been commercialized as substitutes for ODS. The HFCs being used as ODS substitutes are powerful greenhouse gases with global-warming potentials hundreds to thousands of times greater than carbon dioxide (CO2). Recent scientific evidence indicates that GWP-weighted HFC emissions alone could equate to as much as 45% of CO2 emissions by 2050, thus eclipsing efforts to redress global warming.

A legal briefingwritten in 2008 lays the groundwork for establishing the Montreal Protocol as the ideal forum in which to phase-out HFCs as their adoption has increased as a direct result of Montreal Protocol actions to phase-out CFCs. The briefing describes actions for the parties to take, particularly to bring HFCs under regulation within the Montreal Protocol and set deadlines for their phase out.