WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senators Tom Carper (D-Del.), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and John Kennedy (R-La.), today called for the swift ratification of the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. In a letter today to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Robert Menendez (D-N.J.) and Ranking Member James Risch (R-Idaho), the senators pressed for the committee to take up the Kigali Amendment, which calls for the phasedown of super polluting hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).

“Ratification of the Kigali Amendment will further open up global markets to American-made products,” Senators Carper and Kennedy wrote. ”At the same time, U.S. ratification is expected to accelerate the global effort to reduce HFCs usage, which will help avoid up to 0.5 degrees Celsius increase in global temperature by the end of the century,”.

“Ratification of the Kigali Amendment is broadly supported across industry and environmental stakeholders, because these groups know that ratification will be good for our economy, our planet, and our communities,” they continued.

Senators Carper and Kennedy authored the American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, which phases down HFCs along the timeline required under Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. Co-sponsored and passed with strong, bipartisan support and backed by a broad coalition of industry and environmental groups, the AIM Act supports American companies at the forefront of developing climate-friendly and energy-efficient alternatives to HFCs that will save consumers money, while also reducing planet-warming emissions.

Full text of the letter can be found here.

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