Congress targeted tens of millions of dollars related to the Montreal Protocol in the rescission package passed by House lawmakers early Friday morning.
Among the $9 billion in funding the legislation would authorize the White House to claw back is a large chunk of money devoted to the treaty’s Multilateral Fund, an international program funded largely by the U.S. that supports the Montreal Protocol’s goals.
That could harm global efforts to implement the popular treaty created almost 40 years ago to protect the planet’s ozone layer, according to the pact’s supporters.
“The overall effect of this retreat from the Montreal Protocol, either via the clawing back of funding we had promised to give, or the other in-kind contributions … is going to be bad for us environmentally [and] from a business standpoint,” said Richie Kaur, a super pollutant reduction advocate at the Natural Resources Defense Council.
