What it is, why it matters, and what it means for anyone buying or selling refrigerant gas in Pakistan.
Industry Insight · Saqib Enterprises
If you work anywhere near air conditioning, refrigeration, or the gases that make them run, you've probably heard the word "Kigali" thrown around lately — usually followed by a worried look. Here's what it actually is, in plain terms.
Back in 1987, the world signed the Montreal Protocol to stop the gases that were tearing a hole in the ozone layer — CFCs and later HCFCs like R-22. It worked. The ozone layer is genuinely healing. But those ozone-safe replacements the industry switched to, called HFCs (R-410A, R-404A, R-134a, and others), turned out to have a different problem: they're extremely potent greenhouse gases, some trapping heat thousands of times more effectively than CO2.
So in October 2016, in Kigali, Rwanda, the same countries came back together and agreed to fix that too. The Kigali Amendment added HFCs to the list of substances the Montreal Protocol controls — not because they hurt the ozone layer, but because they accelerate climate change.
The Amendment doesn't ban HFCs overnight. It sets a phase-down schedule — a gradual, multi-decade reduction in how much of these gases each country can use, measured collectively in "CO2-equivalent" tonnes rather than gas-by-gas. Countries are split into groups with different timelines:
Pakistan formally joined the Kigali Amendment in 2025 and sits in this last group, which recognizes that countries with genuinely hot climates need more time and a later starting point.
Nothing changes overnight. Systems running on R-410A, R-404A, or R-134a today will continue to be serviced for years to come — this is a phase-down, not a phase-out, and servicing existing equipment is treated differently from new installations in most implementing regulations. What it does mean is that the industry's direction of travel is set: lower-GWP alternatives like R-513A, R-452A, R-1234yf, and Solstice® N40 are where new equipment and long-term planning are heading, because they do the same job with a fraction of the climate impact.
As an official Honeywell & Solstice® distributor, we're tracking this transition closely — both to keep supplying the legacy gases that existing systems still depend on, and to make sure the lower-GWP alternatives are available in Pakistan as the market moves toward them. If you're planning new installations, retrofits, or just want to understand what this means for your specific equipment, get in touch — we're happy to walk through it.
This article is intended as a general, plain-language introduction and does not constitute legal or regulatory advice. For guidance specific to your business, consult Pakistan's Ministry of Climate Change & Environmental Coordination (Ozone Cell) or a qualified environmental compliance advisor.
We're happy to talk through what this means for your business.
