After overnight negotiations, 197 nations signed a climate change deal announced Saturday morning to limit use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), a greenhouse gas with more serious environmental effects than carbon emissions. HFCs are used in refrigeration and air conditioning technologies, and many climate scientists believe limiting their use is the single best way to slow climate change.
The deal, which is legally binding (unlike the recently ratified Paris climate change agreement), has a separate set of rules for developed and developing countries; the former will begin cutting HFC use in 2019, reaching an 85 percent cut of current use levels by 2036. The latter can continue expanding their HFC use until 2024 or 2028 and then must begin gradual cuts from that point forward.
President Obama hailed the new deal as "an ambitious and far-reaching solution to this looming crisis" in a Saturday statement.
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