[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 151 (Tuesday, September 20, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4830-S4831]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Kigali Amendment

  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, later today, the Senate will take the 
first step toward ratifying an amendment to one of the most successful 
international environmental agreements in modern history, the Kigali 
Amendment to the Montreal Protocol.
  Members can expect to cast the first vote on cloture later this 
afternoon after the weekly party lunches. Today's vote will require 60 
votes in the affirmative to move forward. And since the Kigali 
Amendment is part of a treaty, it will require two-thirds of the 
Chamber to ultimately ratify this provision.
  The Kigali Amendment will be one of the most significant bipartisan 
measures the Senate takes on all year, and that is saying something, 
because we have done a lot.
  It would affirm our country's intention to phase down the use of 
hydrofluorocarbons--commonly known as HFCs--by 85 percent over the next 
15 years. Experts say this step alone could prevent half a degree 
Celsius of warming by the end of the 21st century. Is that incredible? 
Half a degree. We struggle to get there. This one measure will do it. 
That may not seem like much, but within the larger context of global 
temperature, it is really very significant.
  There are two paths our country can take, depending on what we do 
with the Kigali Amendment. If we ratify this treaty, not only will we 
protect our planet, but this is an economic issue and an issue to go 
after China, which is a rogue nation in this regard. It will provide us 
a golden opportunity for American businesses to dominate in emerging 
business.
  Every year, millions of refrigerators and AC units are sold around 
the world; and in the United States, many families own more than one 
refrigerator. That is a lot of appliances that will need HFC 
alternatives, which U.S. businesses, particularly, are working to 
prepare for. By one measure, the combined impact of ratifying the 
Kigali Amendment and other steps we have taken to reduce HFCs would 
create 150,000 new jobs and generate nearly $39 billion in investment 
by 2027 as new markets open up for trade. So this, in many ways, is a 
pro-jobs measure, one supported by the Chamber of Commerce, by major 
retailers like Walmart, by the Semiconductor Industry Association, and 
many other business groups.
  If we fail to ratify the amendment, the rest of the world is going to 
move on without us. Without Kigali, we are going to play second fiddle 
to nations like China, whose businesses will surpass ours in developing 
viable HFC alternatives, taking jobs that, by all rights, belong here 
in America. And by 2033, parties to Kigali will be prohibited--
prohibited--from any trade in HFCs with non-Kigali nations. We will 
lose out tens of billions of dollars of sales.
  There is no reason to have that happen. Ratifying Kigali will not 
require any change in the current U.S. law. We already have domestic 
policies phasing out HFCs here at home, so we are putting into practice 
many of the reforms the Kigali Amendment calls for, and no consumer 
will have to change any appliance.
  So for the sake of U.S. businesses, for the sake of U.S. innovators, 
for the

[[Page S4831]]

sake of making sure China has to comply and be part of the world 
community and not do what they think is just good for themselves--which 
seems to be President Xi's way of doing things--I urge my colleagues to 
vote in favor of advancing the Kigali Amendment later today. It is low-
hanging fruit for creating tens of thousands of good-paying jobs right 
here at home.