"Today, President (Barack) Obama and President Xi (Jinping) agreed on an important new step to confront global climate change. For the first time, the United States and China will work together and with other countries to use the expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), among other forms of multilateral cooperation," the White House said in a press statement.
A global phase down of HFCs could potentially reduce some 90 gigatonnes of CO2 equivalent by 2050, equal to roughly two years worth of current global greenhouse gas emissions, the White House statement said after the two-day informal summit.
The bilateral agreement says, "Regarding HFCs, the United States and China agreed to work together and with other countries through multilateral approaches that include using the expertise and institutions of the Montreal Protocol to phase down the production and consumption of HFCs, while continuing to include HFCs within the scope of UNFCCC and its Kyoto Protocol provisions for accounting and reporting of emissions.
"Left unabated, HFC emissions growth could grow to nearly 20 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions by 2050, a serious climate mitigation concern," the statement said.
In 2006, China overtook the United States as the world's biggest producer of carbon dioxide, the chief greenhouse gas. According to the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, China produced 6,200m tonnes of CO2 in 2006, compared with 5,800m tonnes from the US.
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