The Open Philanthropy Project awarded a grant of $3 million to ClimateWorks to contribute to the Kigali Cooling Efficiency Program, which was created recently to assist with a phase-down of the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in developing nations, in connection with the passing of an amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer. This grant falls within Open Philanthropy's work on global catastrophic risks.
The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty signed in 1987 that aimed to phase out the use of substances that damage the ozone layer. More recently, it has become clear that HFCs, which have been used to replace the ozone-damaging substances targeted by the Montreal Protocol, are themselves extremely potent greenhouse gases. In recognition of this, in 2016 an effort was made to amend the Montreal Protocol to include a phase-out of HFCs. This grant is contributing to a pool of funding provided by a group of philanthropic organizations and individuals to support energy efficiency initiatives in developing countries transitioning to HFC alternatives. The goal was to incentivize countries in the developing world to agree to a more ambitious phase-out timeline and to assist them in achieving the proposed timeline.{footnote_1}
In October 2016, one month after this funding was committed, a version of the proposed amendment was passed.{footnote_2}