China, India and Brazil have opposed limits on the production and consumption of highly potent greenhouse gases for the fourth year in row, and climate change advocates are saying this latest obstacle is a step back from progress made at the recently concluded U.N. Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro.

The three fast-developing "BRIC" countries -- the acronym stands for Brazil, Russia, India and China -- have stood together in blocking the phasing down of the "super greenhouse gas" hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) in the Montreal Protocol's text. At last week's Montreal Protocol meeting in Bangkok, they blocked an amendment submitted by the Federated States of Micronesia, an island nation, to gradually cut the level of HFCs -- mostly used to make refrigerants -- over the next 20 years.

As a middle class emerges and the population grows in Brazil, China and India, demand for air conditioning and refrigeration is expected to rise. The three nations cite difficulties in finding alternative refrigerants, as well as the complication of bringing climate change policy into a treaty on the ozone layer, as reasons for their opposition.

These arguments "are stale and unpersuasive and increasingly embarrassing," said Durwood Zaelke, president of the Institute for Governance and Sustainable Development, which campaigns for international action on HFCs and other short-lived climate forcers like methane and black soot -- substances that stay in the atmosphere a short time but can warm the planet significantly.

In Rio de Janeiro, nations agreed to commit to a gradual decrease in HFC production and consumption in order to curb climate change.

Brazil, India and China's intentions are self-serving, said David Doniger, climate policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Business leaders in India and China are earning profits by destroying HFC-23 -- a byproduct of making another fluorinated gas -- through the U.N. Clean Development Mechanism, which pays for low-carbon actions.

"They are fat and happy and don't want change," said Doniger. Brazil is siding with the Asian giants in a move of solidarity with fellow BRIC nations, he added.

In supporting China and India, Brazil expects the favor will be returned, giving the country more clout in climate negotiations and secure sovereignty over the Amazon, said Zaelke.

"Brazil has no claws in the fight," said Zaelke. "Their interest is purely political."

Succeeding where the UNFCCC failed?

The Montreal Protocol was signed in 1987 to curb the use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs), fluorinated gases that eat away at the ozone layer -- the Earth's protection against the sun's harmful ultraviolet rays.

CFCs and HCFCs in refrigerants were replaced with HFCs -- fluorinated gases that don't harm the ozone layer but accelerate the rate of climate change. Some HFCs have a global warming potential about 400 to 10,000 times that of carbon dioxide.

The issue of using the Montreal Protocol to control HFCs has moved from a discussion among technocrats at international meetings to a national level, said Zaelke. The Climate and Clean Air Coalition to Reduce Short-Lived Climate Pollutants (CCAC) -- a pact among 21 nations plus the World Bank, the U.N. Environment Programme and the European Commission to tackle short-lived climate forcers like HFCs -- was launched in February by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (ClimateWire, Feb. 17).

The coalition signifies a "general willingness" to work together on short-lived climate forcers. That international willingness escalated in Rio, said Zaelke.

The Montreal Protocol is widely touted as one of the most successful environmental treaties ever for its success in preventing the deterioration of the ozone layer. Almost every country in the world is a signatory and has agreed to make advances toward curbing fluorinated gases.

More recently, climate change advocates have looked to the Montreal Protocol as a means to pick up where the international climate negotiations have failed: by targeting a small portion of very potent greenhouse gases through the protocol's proven success (ClimateWire, Nov. 18, 2011).

The Air-Conditioning, Heating and Refrigeration Institute is investigating 38 alternatives to HFCs with a low global warming potential. Currently, only one synthetic alternative is available commercially on a large scale, said Karim Amrane, vice president of regulatory and research for the institute.

"It's going to take a while to sort out the good ones and less good ones; most of them are new compounds," he said.

Amrane believes it is a wise decision to seek a phase-down of HFCs, but not a complete phaseout. The need for HFCs will remain for a long time, and some provide exceptionally good refrigeration, he said.

More importantly, said Amrane, policymakers need to look at both the direct and the indirect global warming impacts of switching refrigerants. An inefficient refrigerant could contribute more to climate change if it requires more coal-burning power than an HFC refrigerant.

"What's more important, by far more important, is the energy efficiency," he said. "[It's] much more important than [global warming potential] itself."

The next meeting of the Montreal Protocol will be held in Geneva in November.