Marking a significant change in position, India, on Monday, maintained silence on the issue of amending the Montreal Protocol to bring greenhouse gas hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) under it, at the 10th Joint Meeting of the Parties to the Vienna Convention and the 26th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol. 

Even as West Asian oil-producing countries, led by Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, expressed reservations against the proposed amendment and asked for the deletion of this agenda, India did not join the opposing voices.  

Last year, India had led these nations in protesting such an amendment to UNs Montreal Protocol, which is an international agreement on phasing out of ozone-depleting substances. 

This move comes in the wake of recent dialogue between the US President Barack Obama and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The two countries have entered into an agreement for cleaner energy under which the US would give India $1 billion to finance renewable energy and research. This deal, however, came bundled with a promise of dialogue on HFCs at the Montreal Protocol talks. 

The India-US joint statement on September 30, said, "The leaders recalled previous bilateral and multilateral statements on the phase-down of HFCs.  They recognized the need to use the institutions and expertise of the Montreal Protocol to reduce consumption and production of HFCs, while continuing to report and account for the quantities reduced under the UNFCCC."

This change in stance could have a huge effect on India's refrigeration and coolant industry, which includes airconditioners, and is estimated at over Rs 15,000 crore. If HFCs were brought under the Montreal Protocol, compulsory transitions from the current use of HFCs to the new, proprietary gases are likely to create a monopoly for the patent holders.

India has previously stalled all attempts to negotiate HFCs under the Montreal Protocol on the grounds that HFCs are not ozone-depleting (though they are highly warming) and the alternative, greener technologies, most of which are patented by corporate giants in developed nations, are too expensive.  Some of these alternative gases are, in fact, as yet not completely tested.

On Monday, French Minister for Ecology, Sustainable Development and Energy, Segolene Royal, opened the UN talks with a call to amend the Protocol to include HFCs. 

However, while she added that given the historic responsibilities of developed countries, "we have a responsibility to transfer technologies and patents to poorer countries."

On this issue of transferring technologies to developing countries using the Climate Fund, however, the US has remained largely silent. 

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