Friends of the Kigali Amendment

Celebrate the achievement. Accelerate the next decade of action.

Ten years after having helped secure the Amendment, this voluntary, high-level and action-oriented group has come together again to secure the Amendment’s full climate and development benefits.

Why now

Rapidly rising cooling demand makes this a public-health, food-security, productivity, energy-affordability and power-system resilience issue.

0.5°C

Potential warming avoided by 2100

The Kigali Amendment can avoid up to 0.5°C of warming by 2100, making a significant contribution to the Paris Agreement temperature goals.

460 GtCO₂e

Potential climate benefits by 2060

UNEP and IEA estimate that pairing the refrigerant transition with increased appliance energy efficiency could double the climate benefits. Together, the estimates point to an overall opportunity of avoiding up to 460 GtCO₂e from implementing the Kigali Amendment alongside energy-efficient cooling by 2060.

174 of 198 Parties

Kigali Amendment ratifications

Universal participation is within reach, but not complete: 174 of 198 Montreal Protocol Parties had ratified the Kigali Amendment as of August 2026.

The Friends of the Kigali Amendment

The Friends of the Kigali Amendment work to unite governments around four shared objectives to deliver stronger political ambition, effective country implementation, wider access to efficient and affordable cooling, and the scaling of successful efficient cooling and life cycle refrigerant management approaches.

The Climate and Clean Air Coalition supports delivery through political convening; country support as spelled out in the engagement strategy; proving and sharing of successful business models; and cross-country learning.

Led by Rwanda and government co-champions, the Friends remain politically focused and administratively light, reinforcing, not duplicating, the Montreal Protocol’s institutions and processes.

Four shared objectives

1. Universal Ratification

Encourage and support all remaining countries to ratify and strengthen the political case for universal participation.

2. Accelerated Implementation

Advance lifecycle refrigerant management, efficient and sustainable cooling.

3. Finance, Technology and Capacity

Reaffirm the central role of the Multilateral Fund in enabling countries to meet their obligations and accelerate the transition when possible, and welcome the philanthropic effort to establish a $100 million fundraising goal to support the next decade of success.

4. Industry Partnership

Collaborate with industry to ensure access to efficient, affordable and sustainable cooling technologies; support skills development, servicing and maintenance capacity; strengthen refrigerant recovery and reclamation systems.

Ministerial Communiqué

Celebrating Achievement. Renewing Partnership. Accelerating Action.

New York, 23 September 2026

The Ministerial Communiqué revives the Friends of the Kigali Amendment as a high-level, action-oriented coalition dedicated to the full implementation of the Kigali Amendment and maximising its climate and development benefits.

The Friends will advance three mutually reinforcing levers:

Ensuring the phasedown of HFCs;
Improving the energy efficiency of cooling appliances and equipment; and
Strengthening lifecycle refrigerant management.

Download the communiqué

A decade of delivery

The tenth anniversary of the Kigali Amendment is a moment to celebrate progress and raise collective ambition. The next decade must be a decade of delivery at scale, turning commitments into measurable results for people, economies and the planet.

Our work will remain guided by the Montreal Protocol’s proven principles of science-based decision-making, fairness, shared responsibility, adequate finance, practical implementation and its “start and strengthen” culture.

From momentum to implementation

CCAC leaders gathered in Vienna in July 2016 for a final push on the Kigali Amendment at the “Executive Session of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition’s High Level Assembly”

What comes next

The Friends will meet again in Kigali in November and on the margins of COP31 to review progress against these priorities, assess commitments made under the Friends of the Kigali Amendment and identify further actions to accelerate delivery.