Differences crop up among developed nations on HFC phase down

Differences have cropped up among developed countries in the talks in the Rwandan capital to save earth from Hydroflurocarbons (HFCs) with Russia distancing itself from such nations' proposal for a single baseline for them to phase down the harmful refrigerant gas.
Voicing its differences with developed nations on the contentious issue, Russian negotiator, in a contact group meeting held on the sidelines of the Meeting of the Parties on Montreal Protocol yesterday, said his country would require a more lenient baseline than the one currently proposed by Article 2 countries including the US.
The baseline is the year against which each country's targets for reduction of HFC can be measured.

All rich countries including US, Japan, Russia, EU are Article 2 (A2) countries.
While A2 countries say that they want to cut down HFC consumption by 10 per cent in 2020 from what it was in 2011-13, Russia says that they will start reducing the HFC consumption in 2020 only.
Attending the contact group meeting, India's lead negotiator Manoj Kumar Singh suggested that "we are open to the idea for having two base lines" for A2 countries.

India is in favour of having two different HFC phase-down schedule for developing countries -- one for China and whoever else wants to join China and other for the remaining developing countries.

China is currently the world's largest producer of HFCs and consumes 20 times more than India.
Meanwhile, Kigali Convention Centre is all set to hold ministerial session of the Montreal Protocol in which all differences are expected to be ironed out and an agreement on phasing down of HFCs.
Environment Minister Anil Madhav Dave and US Secretary of State John Kerry are expected to attend the session.
In the MoP session yesterday, India asked the UN to produce reports of country-wise production and consumption of the HFCs over last decade.
During his intervention yesterday, Singh said the UNEP Technology and Economic Assessment Panel (TEAP) should produce reports indicating county-wise production and consumption of HFCs over last 10 years.