Refrigerants Australia (RA) executive director, Greg Picker, said he was “frustrated” after Montreal Protocol negotiations in Paris this month failed to reach agreement on a HFC phasedown.
Picker is hopeful negotiations can resume and agreement can be reached before official Climate Talks at the end of the year.
He said the only real opposition to a phasedown is coming from the Middle East and Pakistan with other countries effectively in agreement.
“Everyone is keen to reach an agreement because this should be an environmental win and industry needs certainty; we want to move forward,” Picker said.
“The political pressure to start negotiating a phasedown and to make a deal is palpable. There is a real sense among countries that this needs to be delivered soon.
“Despite hours of long and tedious negotiations, and a sense for the first time that a deal was possible, hopes were cruelled at the last minute.”
Instead the meeting was adjourned with plans to resume negotiations prior to the next meeting in Dubai in early November. The goal is to agree on a phasedown before the United Nations World Climate Summit which is being held from November 30 to December 11, 2015.
It will be attended by governments from more than 190 countries to discuss a new global agreement on climate change.
Current commitments on greenhouse gas emissions run out in 2020, so new agreements need to be reached for the following decade.
Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, is expected to announce Australia's post 2020 targets in early August.
The world's biggest emitters have already agreed to targets. For example, the European Union will cuts its emissions by 40 per cent compared with 1990 levels by 2030.
The United States will cuts its emissions by 26 to 28 per cent, compared with 1990 levels, by 2030 while China's emissions will peak by 2030.