Barry Gardiner MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for International Trade and Minister for International Climate Change, responding to today’s announcement on a global deal to reduce HFCs said: 

“The reason today’s deal is so important is that HFCs are 3,000 times more powerful than CO2 in causing global warming.  

“I salute the efforts of President Obama who has made this deal a priority in the final days of his administration and ensured his legacy in combatting dangerous climate change will make a difference for decades to come. 

“This ‘Kigali amendment’ as it is known, builds on the Montreal Protocol, which succeeded in protecting the ozone layer, and the landmark Paris Agreement. It will prevent almost half a degree of warming and shows the importance of coordinated international action.  

“But international cooperation must galvanise national action and the UK government must now drive forward with its long-awaited ‘Carbon Plan’. UK domestic policy has stalled and the government must urgently explain how it will fill the 47% policy gap to reach its 2030 targets.”