Latest rescissions bill finally kills spending on 1987 Montreal Protocol

The most recent congressional rescissions package will block $9 billion in spending, including funds for United Nations (UN) environmental treaties such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer (Montreal Protocol). This long-overdue move will not only save taxpayer dollars but also help preclude further mischief under this treaty.

Environmental bureaucracies often outlast the issues that gave rise to them. There are several such examples in CEI’s recent book, Modernizing the EPA: A Blueprint for Congress, which documents a number of decades-old environmental programs long in need of updating or even retirement. In some cases, the underlying environmental concerns behind the programs have been adequately addressed, while in others they turned out to be considerably less serious than initially assumed. Either way, the EPA rarely makes appropriate adjustments on its own and Congress often drops the ball in winding down the funding. The same is true for UN environmental treaties such as the 1987 Montreal Protocol.

The Montreal Protocol primarily targeted a class of compounds called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), widely used at the time as refrigerants in air conditioning and refrigeration equipment but blamed for depleting the Earth’s ozone layer. Today, however, CFC production and use has been dramatically reduced to the point that the original goals of the treaty have been achieved. For example, the US was once the world’s largest producer of CFCs but has completely stopped making them since 1996. Nonetheless, the UN still spends heavily on the Montreal Protocol, most significantly for a multilateral fund that provides aid to developing nations to help comply with the treaty. The US is the single largest contributor to these efforts.

No more. The rescissions bill does not specify how much of the $437 million in treaty rescissions specifically targets the Montreal Protocol as opposed to other treaties, but it would likely zero the Protocol out.

Beyond the taxpayer dollars saved, pulling the plug on this spending also helps stop mission creep. As it stands, the Montreal Protocol was expanded in 2016 to go after several CFC substitutes based on claims that they are contributors to climate change from the ill-advised Kigali Amendment. Alongside companion domestic legislation called the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, the Kigali Amendment is a large part of the reason the cost of residential air conditioning is rising. The rescissions package doesn’t repeal the Montreal Protocol or Kigali Amendment, but it at least reduces the likelihood of any further expansions.    

The rescissions package has passed both the House and Senate and awaits the president’s signature. Ideally, the US would withdraw completely from the Montreal Protocol and Kigali Amendment, but in the meantime, cutting off any further treaty funding is a great first step for the American people.