The Accra-Helsinki Group for Sustainable Cooling

Background and Overview

The Accra-Helsinki Group was inaugurated in 2024. Like its predecessors, the Stockholm and Toronto Groups, the Group is an informal community of like-minded individuals and groups focused on strengthening the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer and preventing ozone depletion and climate tipping points. Discussions center around current and future issues that may be addressed by the Montreal Protocol.

Unlike its predecessors, the Accra-Helsinki Group is unique in fostering strong collaboration between Article 5 (developing) and Article 2 (developed) Parties to pursue the Group’s goals.

The Group was initiated in response to concerns that inefficient cooling equipment using obsolete ozone-depleting substances (ODS) and hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerants is dumped into developing-country markets at prices so low that equipment necessary to avoid climate tipping points cannot compete for sales. In fact, in almost all of Africa and in many parts of Southeast Asia, energy-efficient cooling equipment with ozone- and climate-friendly refrigerants is not offered for sale.

Fortunately, Parties to the Montreal Protocol have agreed that the solution to this issue must involve exporters and importers (i.e., a “shared responsibility”). For instance, the EU and the US took the first steps by creating regulations to control the export of equipment that does not qualify for domestic sale. The challenge of the Accra-Helsinki Group is to put forward practical solutions for making this market transition.

Since that time, the Accra-Helsinki Group has expanded its focus to discuss other “unfinished business” of the Montreal Protocol by convening regular Side Events at Montreal Protocol meetings. This unfinished business is a critical part of the next decade of action for the Montreal Protocol—one of the world’s most successful treaties.