Refrigerators and air-conditioners are likely to be hotly debated topics over the next week — at the 10th Joint Meeting of the Parties to the Vienna Convention and the 26th Meeting of the Parties to the Montreal Protocol starting Monday.

The refrigerant coolant — hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs — has been a point of contention between India and the developed countries, especially the US, with India refusing to negotiate phasing out of the coolant without adequate assistance. Indications are that India would agree to set up a contact group to discuss and negotiate the phasing out of HFCs.

New Delhi’s primary grouse has been that the alternative technologies are expensive and the proprietary rights are held by US corporate giants.

Following recent meetings between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Barack Obama and a deal under which the US will give $1 billion to finance renewable energy and research, India may be ready to discuss HFCs under the Montreal Protocol.

The US has repeatedly been pressing India to discuss the phasing out of HFCs under the Montreal Protocol.

But India has been resisting any commitments on the grounds that HFCs do not actually result in ozone layer depletion.

Montreal pact The Montreal Protocol, which was first signed in 1987 and has 198 countries as signatories, is an international agreement to protect the ozone layer, the depletion of which started becoming a cause for concern in the 1980s.

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