After all-night negotiations in Kigali, Rwanda, more than 150 countries reached an agreement to amend the Montreal Protocol that will see countries cut back their HFC use from 2019.
Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) are widely used in fridges, air conditioning and aerosol sprays. Worldwide use of HFCs has soared in the past decade as rapidly growing countries like China and India have adopted air conditioning in homes, offices and cars.
HFC gases are thousands of times more destructive to the climate than carbon dioxide, and their growing use threatens to undermine efforts made under the Paris agreement to reduce climate emissions.
The deal to cap and reduce the use of HFCs will observe a gradual process, commencing in 2019 with action by developed countries, including the world's second worst polluter - the US. Each participating country will aim to make a cut of at least 10% in their HFC use.
Over 100 developing countries will begin to take action in 2024. This group includes China, the world's top carbon dioxide emitter.
The remaining few countries which include India, Pakistan and some Gulf States managed to secure a later start date for action in 2028. Their argument for this later start date was that their economies needed more time to grow, despite India being the world's third worst polluter.
There has been concern expressed by some action groups that action will be implemented too slowly to make a real difference. Many small island nations and African countries had pushed for quick action, as typically they face the biggest threat from climate change.
Environmental groups hoped that the deal could reduce global warming by a half a degree celsius by the end of this century. Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, said that this agreement goes about 90% of the way to achieving this, and commented this would mean the ''largest temperature reduction ever achieved by a single agreement.''
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